Charah vs The Teens
by Barbadiangirl
Summary: Being a parent isn't easy.Well, neither is being a teenager! Charah's teenagers find themselves in trouble and how Chuck and Sarah handle these situations may not be the best. Tensions rise, someone might reach their breaking point and lash out at Chuck/Sarah and Charah wonders if they are in a Twilight zone, or if this is all part of the 'teenager phase' that parents dread. R&R.
1. Chapter 1- Sariyah's in Trouble

**A/N:** **AN: Ahhh, I've got a break in my exams so I was able to work on this. Thanks to _charahkids_ for looking at this for me.**

 **This plot is the result of one of my early morning group discussions at school. In one of our more serious moments (because usually we talk about completely irrelevant and often times stupid stuff..but hey! School stressful so we need to decompress) we discussed the topic of excessive cell phone usage, and stuff like that.**

 **I don't own CHUCK.**

 **Charah vs The Teens- Chapter 1- Sariyah's in Trouble**

 ** _Italics_ represent character thoughts.**

* * *

For the tenth time (and yes, she was counting), Sarah heard her daughter's phone buzzing. The fourteen year old sprinted quickly from the living room and into the kitchen, taking the phone from off the counter. She smiled when she unlocked it and saw the message. Sarah glanced at her, stilling her hands from cutting the vegetables for a moment, she looked at Sariyah knowingly.

"You know, I can't help but notice that your phone is always in your hand," Sarah began, testing the waters. Sariyah shrugged nonchalantly as her fingers easily swept over the touch screen. "The least you can do is look at me when I am speaking to you. I'm sure whoever it is can wait," Sarah added a bit harshly. She could not believe she needed to be having this conversation with her daughter. She was sure that she and Chuck had instilled better manners in their children. Sariyah did not reply, but continued to type away as though her mother had not spoken. "Sariyah? Are you even listening to me?"

Sariyah looked up at her mother, blue orbs meeting blue. "I'm listening Mom," she eyed Sarah exasperatedly.

Before Sarah could add another word, Sariyah's phone buzzed again and she tried to surreptitiously look at it. Sarah frowned. She was happy that her daughter had a social life, but lately it seemed like she lived on her phone. Sariyah felt her mother's gaze burn through her and she brushed her blond bangs out of her face as a distraction.

"Who are you talking to anyway?" Sarah queried, getting back to chopping the vegetables. Sariyah looked down at her feet and swayed lightly. There was a pregnant pause and Sarah looked up at her. "I asked who you were talking to." She said forcefully. She didn't want to be that mom who pried into everything and never let her child have some privacy, but she would ask questions if need be.

"It's just Laura. She was asking for some help with our Bio homework."

Sarah masked her frown. Her daughter had just lied. "And what's so difficult about this homework that she has to message you five times within two minutes?" Sarah prodded.

Sariyah rolled her eyes and smacked her lips. "Geez Mom, I can't control how my friends send me the damn messages." Her eyes widened as soon as the words left her mouth.

Sarah raised her brow at her and held her gaze firm on the teen. She was a bit taken aback. Her eyebrows knitted as she replayed the last few seconds in her mind. Sariyah had just raised her voice at her and had been rude! This was certainly not how she had been raised.

Sariyah quickly mumbled an apology. "I'm sorry... I didn't mean to sound so rude." Her mother was still staring her down and she couldn't bear to look her in the eyes. Yeah, the tiled floor seemed much more interesting at this point. She'd only just come off of punishment yesterday for wearing makeup even though her parents had forbidden her to do so. At first, she had tried using some of her mother's, but Sarah had found out that she was messing with her stuff. Following that, she went out and bought some of her own from the mall when she had gone with her cousin Clara but Chuck, in a moment of clumsiness, had knocked over some of the items on her dresser and the makeup which she had hidden in her jewellery chest spilled out. In her opinion, hiding them in plain sight had been a great option, but because of her father's clumsiness, she had been caught. She had been scolded and as a punishment for defying their authority she had been banned from going out with her friends for two weeks.

Chuck walked in then, phone in hand and oblivious to the tension between his wife and daughter. "Hey babe, your Mom's on the phone." He passed the phone to her. Sarah smiled her thanks to him and then looked at Sariyah, the look in her eyes letting her know that their conversation was far from over.

"Hey Mom, what's up?" She spoke into the receiver and with that, Sariyah scampered out of the kitchen, glad to be away from her mother.

 **/\**

"Chuck, have you noticed lately how much differently Sariyah is acting?" Sarah asked her husband as they were preparing for bed.

He nodded. "I have felt like she is hiding something from us. Of course when I found the makeup, I thought that had been the root of the problem. Why? What's wrong?"

"I just don't like the vibes I've been getting from her lately," Sarah huffed.

"And I've taken note of the fact that she been spending a lot of time on her phone lately." If it continued and Sariyah began to neglect her studies or display any kind of increasingly worrying behaviour then they would be intervening.

Sarah sighed. She wasn't being paranoid. "Today she snapped at me. Just as you came in I was ready to give her a serious dressing down"

"I could talk to her," he offered.

Sarah shook her head. "No, I think I'll watch her a bit more and then if need be then we can intervene."

"I'm always up for a Good Cop/ Bad Cop exercise if you need me," Chuck said, wrapping his arms around her. He was joking of course, they never used interrogation tactics with their children…well not usually, but when they did talk to their children together they usually tried to be as understanding as possible.

She smiled against his chest. "Love you Chuck."

"Love you too baby."

The makeup thing, being on her phone all the time, being rude to them...it was just getting to be too much. They would be talking to her soon though; that much was certain. Sarah sighed again. She wanted what was best for her children and she just hoped that they could put an end to Sariyah's recent unsettling behaviour.

* * *

 **~/0\~**

Their parents did not look happy. In fact, they looked pissed. CJ Bartowski was glad that he was not on the receiving end of their hard looks. His younger sister sat beside him, squirming in her seat. _She was gonna get it. Big time._

"Sariyah, would you like to tell me why I got a call from your Biology teacher saying that you've been missing a couple of classes and that she hasn't received your Bio homework which was given two weeks ago?" Chuck barely managed to keep his anger at bay.

Sariyah looked at everything in the room except her parents. She glanced at her brother, pleading for help. He tapped two fingers on her arm, letting her know she was on her own with this one. _Sorry sis, can't help you with this one._ She sighed. "Becauseeee..." She trailed.

"Because? Because what?!"

She shrugged, "Just because..."

Sarah growled. "Just because!? That's your answer? Have you suddenly forgotten how to answer a simple question? You better give us an answer and it better be a damned good one!" Sarah raged.

Chuck placed a hand on the small of Sarah's back, trying to calm her. She turned to him and was met by his warm hazel eyes. She relaxed, but only slightly.

"Sariyah, you're better than that. Why haven't you done your homework?"

"It was too hard."

"Blossom," Chuck began, using the nickname he'd given her when she was three and enthralled with The Powerpuff Girls, "you know you can come to us when you need help. And since it's Biology, you could've even asked your Aunt Ellie or Uncle Awesome."

"Or me," CJ spoke up. He didn't mean to toot his own horn, but he did consider himself to be a genius and he had always aced his Biology classes throughout secondary school.

Sarah looked at her daughter, analysing her. _She is lying. Again._ "Why are you lying to us Sariyah?" Sariyah looked at her, confused. Sarah always picked up on when her children weren't being honest with her. And it wasn't just because of her CIA training. It was like a part of her mother's intuition. "Is this the same homework you were helping Laura with the other day when your phone was incessant while we were in the kitchen?" Her voice was oddly calm and that unnerved Sariyah.

Sariyah's eyes widened. She had been caught. _Oh crap!_ "Umm."

Sarah laughed bitterly. "You are making me mad Sariyah. So here's what's going happen: I'm gonna go into the kitchen and get a glass of water. When I come back, you better talk, or you won't like the consequences." With that, she stormed out of the living room.

"Sariyah," Chuck spoke to her, his voice soothing. She shook her head sorrowfully, sending alarm bells off in his head. "Sariyah, sweetheart, whatever it is you can tell me. We'll figure it out."

She opened her mouth to speak but closed it on second thought. Chuck waited, wanting to see if she'd change her mind about being mute and confide in him. She didn't. "Sariyah, the only we can help you is if you tell us what's going on," he pleaded.

Sariyah looked up at him shyly. He was so concerned about her, but there was no way she could tell him why she didn't hand in that homework. She was his baby girl, and she feared telling him would taint his view of her. No, it was better for him to angry about her refusing to answer than for them to be angry at what she had done.

"I can't tell you Daddy," she whispered softly. "I'm sorry."

"Yes you can. You can tell me anything," Chuck pressed. "Anything at all."

"Not this time," she mumbled.

Chuck sighed and nodded. They sat there for a moment, an uncomfortable silence blanketing the room. He looked at her one more time before going into the kitchen to check on Sarah.

Sariyah bit her lip. She had never seen her mother so pissed and her father was so crushed that she refused to tell him anything. They had always been close and she often told him things before telling her mother so she knew that what she had just done was agonising for Chuck. Still, she stood firm in her decision. They wouldn't find out the real reason, at least not from her.

"Why are you lying?" CJ asked his younger sister, truly concerned. "Just tell them what it is. It'll be better if you just tell them the truth." The seventeen year old had learnt that lesson the hard way. He had lied to his parents one time about going to a party and drinking while at said party.

She shook her head. "You saw how mad Mom was. If I tell them, they will freak out."

"That's your logic?" He rolled his eyes. "I think they will be madder if you don't talk."

"Well they can't force me to." She remained defiant.

"What did you do?" he pressed, his mind already going off on a tangent. _What could she had gotten herself into? Drugs? She doesn't keep company with the known delinquents at school, so I don't think she skipped class either._

She looked at him, searching his brown eyes and finding nothing but trust and warmth in them. He was like their father in that way. _Maybe I should tell him and he'd help me talk to Mom and Dad._ "Ok, I'll tell you," she whispered. "I didn't-" she clamped her mouth shut as just then Sarah and Chuck came back into the room.

Sarah sat down facing them and Chuck sat on her left side. "I'm listening. So you better start talking,"

"I didn't hand in the homework because I wasn't present when she collected it." She was just gonna go with the truth...Or part of it. A half truth technically had **_some_** truth to it. Didn't it?

Chuck frowned. She hadn't missed any days of school lately, so as far as he was concerned, she shouldn't have missed any classes either. "And why weren't you present?"

She winced. Maybe going with the truth wasn't the right idea. She should have expected that follow up question. "I was with Laura. She wasn't feeling well so I stayed with her in the school nurse's office until her parents came to pick her up." See that's the thing about lies- it creates a chain reaction where you tell a lie to cover the previous one.

CJ looked at Sariyah with wide eyes and horror. _What the hell had she been up to that she is telling so many lies?_ He was pretty sure that Laura, or any of his sister's friends for that matter had not gone home sick recently. Both Chuck and Sarah noticed the look the older boy had sent his sister.

"Assuming we go with your story," Sarah began, trying to keep the disbelief out of her voice. "Are you trying to tell me that Laura was sooooooooo sick that you couldn't slip out for a couple of minutes to hand in your assignment? And how long was she in the sick bay? Could you not have gone after?"

"Well, what had happened was…"

"Why are you lying to us Sariyah?" Chuck asked. She looked at him, he looked tired and disappointment filled his eyes. She couldn't bear to have him disappointed in her.

"I'm not lying Daddy," she said, her voice having a tremble to it.

Sarah scoffed. "So if I called Laura's house and talked to her parents they'd tell me that she did come home sick."

She didn't answer. _Well, foot, meet mouth!_ If she had called Laura, she suspected Laura would've covered for her, but her parents would tell her mother the truth.

"This is the last time we're gonna ask you this. Why are you lying and why have you been skipping classes?" Chuck said through clenched teeth. She kept mum, biting the inside of jaws. The atmosphere was tense and Chuck and Sarah were growing angrier by the second, CJ ran his hands through his brown curls in frustration.

"Sariyah just tell them."

She shook her head stubbornly. "No, you won't understand and you'll get upset." She refused to utter a word.

Again, Sarah frowned. She just wanted to get to the bottom of this. There was a staring match between Chuck and Sarah on one side and Sariyah on the other as they waited for her to talk. Just then, her phone vibrated against her thigh and she her the distinct ding of her message notification. She didn't move to fetch it from her pocket and it buzzed again fifteen seconds later.

Sarah looked at the younger version of herself. "Give me your phone." Her commanding tone left no room for argument and she held out her hand.

Warmth crept up Sariyah's neck and she glanced at her parents. Sarah narrowed her eyes and shook her hand albeit impatiently.

"Mom! This is totally unnecessary!" Sariyah whined but when she saw her mother's grim expression, she conceded with a huff. Sarah took the phone, and pressed the power button, intending to turn it off. However, the home screen lit up. Sarah looked at it intently, her lips parting slightly and then looked at Sariyah. Sariyah looked up at her timidly and realised that Sarah must have seen the text notification. _Oh dear Lord, please let it be Laura or Carmen... please don't let it be-_ Her mother's eyes were burning through her and she knew then and there that the message was not from any of her girlfriends. Her body got hot and she broke eye contact. _This was going to be bad._ Sarah looked at the phone, rage in her eyes. She pressed the home button again and turned the phone so Chuck could see. Chuck looked at it without hesitation, eager to find out what could be making Sarah so angry. When he looked at it, his eyes had fire in them and he looked at Sariyah with questioning eyes.

CJ was left out of the loop and wondered what it was all about. He looked at Sariyah, asking her what she had done. She shook her head at him and bowed under his gaze.

"CJ, maybe it's time for you to go to your room. You've got a football game tomorrow so you'll need to be well rested for that," Sarah reminded him.

If that was supposed to sound like a suggestion, it sounded more like an order to him. He shook his head. This was their way of getting him out of the room. He sighed though. He certainly wasn't about to argue with his parents when they were so mad. Also, tomorrow was the semi-finals for the inter-school football competition so he wanted to be at his best. He loved the game and that was mostly due to his Uncle Awesome and Aunt Molly's influence. He had certainly gotten the athletic side from his mother, but still enjoyed playing video games, or watching Star Wars with his father and Uncle Morgan on occasion. He sighed again and squared his shoulders. Sending an apologetic look to his sister, and a small smile as good luck, he left the room. He felt a bit guilty, he was sure that his parents had picked up on the way his eyes had widened when Sariyah said Laura had gone home sick. He just hoped she wasn't in too much trouble, though from what he'd heard, he was pretty sure that she was. CJ was tempted to stay just outside the living room and listen from the foyer, but considering that his parents were already angry, he didn't want to make it any worse. Him getting caught eavesdropping because of his parents' "spy senses" was not in the cards for tonight.

"Who is Jake?!" CJ heard his mother demand.

He could visualize Sariyah cringing at her tone. Hell, he was halfway up the stairs and he was cringing. Sariyah didn't answer, because he heard his mother repeat the question, her voice having a sharp edge to it.

"Sariyah Ashley Bartowski!" He heard his father roar. This was bad. His father never raised his voice like that. And he was calling out her full name. It was one of those unspoken rules of the universe that whenever a aren't called you by your full name that there was big trouble. "You will answer us!" _Shit was about to hit the fan._

 **/\**

Sarah ran her fingers through her hair. She counted from one to ten, trying to calm herself. Chuck was pinching the bridge of his nose, not wanting to do or say anything he'd regret. When Sarah spoke, she was in control of her emotions, just like she would've been in an interrogation.

"Who is this Jake that has been messaging you?"

Sariyah pursed her lips. "He's just a guy from school."

"Is he in your class?" Chuck asked. She shook her head no.

"Is he the reason you didn't go to Biology?" She was silent, and held her face in her hands. That was their answer. Was she out of her damn mind?! Skipping class to be with a boy!?

"Sariyah," Chuck said sternly, "did you skip class with him?" He needed her actual affirmation.

Sariyah nodded miserably. "Where did you two go?" Chuck pressed. She shrugged.

"One time we went under the bleachers."

Sarah and Chuck glanced at each other uncomfortably. The bleachers, just great. They knew what usually happened under the bleachers and they didn't think much had changed since their days in high school. The thought of Sariyah and a boy under the bleachers made Chuck frown. His train of thought chugged on, as he wondered what Sariyah had been doing with this Jake guy whom he had a gnawing feeling was older than her. He balked at the thought- older and probably more experienced who taught younger girls how stuff was done. Chuck squashed that line of thought. He wouldn't jump to conclusions.

"What did you do under the bleachers?" Sarah asked, knowing that she might not like the response.

"Nothing really."

Sarah's face scrunched. _What the hell was that supposed to mean?_ "You need to be clearer than that."

"We just talked."

"And you said 'one time' that implies that you've skipped class to be with him on more than one occasion. Where else did you go?"

"He took me to the skater ring."

"Wait," Sarah held up her finger. "Sooooooooo, what you're telling me is that you left school property with him and went to God knows where?"

Sariayh shrugged. She'd only skipped class twice to be with him. Perhaps it hadn't been the best idea to skip the same class twice. But with the way her and Jake's timetable were, skipping her Thursday Biology class was the best option.

Chuck sighed. He looked at Sarah and she nodded. "Your mother and I have decided to take away your phone. Indefinitely."

Sariyah's blood ran cold. She sniffed and wiped her eyes with the corner of her hands. Her face was in her hands, tears pouring from her eyes. "I'm sorry," she mumbled miserably. Her phone buzzed again, she was really becoming annoyed at the damn thing. Sarah looked at it and saw that she had a new message from the same Jake, but this time it was a picture.

Sarah was very intrigued as to what he was sending. "Give me your password." Sariyah reached for the phone, but Sarah pulled it back. "Not happening. Tell me what it is."

"I haven't done anything! There's no need for you to go through my phone!"

Sarah exhaled slowly. "On the contrary my darling, I think skipping class to be with a boy, a boy whom we know nothing about and lying by the skin of your teeth amounts to much, much more than nothing."

"But, but," she stuttered, aware that this was a losing battle. "It's an invasion of my privacy! I have rights too! It's not fair!"

Chuck interrupted her this time. "Let's not even go there about privacy. From the time those lies came out of your mouth you pretty much gave up a right to privacy." The anger was clearly present in his voice. "Give your mother the password." Sariyah shook her head no again.

"Damn it Sariyah!" Sarah yelled. She was quickly losing her cool. Her breath was becoming ragged. The CIA agent persona she had been channelling moments prior was quickly dissipating.

Sariyah recoiled at the sound of her mother's voice. Chuck rubbed his hand along the length of Sarah's arm. He knew she was rather upset, but seeing Sariyah flinch at the sound of her voice made him pause. They didn't want her to feel alienated, but she could not continue how she had been acting. He'd take it from there while she got herself under control.

"You have two options here. Give us the password or the Piranha will come out to play. And you know I've already made some modifications to your phone. Getting into it notwithstanding the password would be a piece of cake."

She sighed. They had her backed up against the wall. There was no way she was getting out of this. When they saw Jake's messages though, she was certain they would pop a gasket.

"091405." She couldn't not give it to them. Her shoulders slumped in defeat. She knew her mother would be going into her messages. She couldn't bear to watch as her fingers glided across the touch screen so she kept her head down, feeling the tears prickling in her eyes.

"Sooooooooooo" Sarah drawled, a twangy Southern ascent coming into play, "you have a boyfriend?" The picture Jake had sent was of a heart and the words "I'm glad that you're my girl" inside. Sarah felt like hurling the phone at the wall.

"I'm in trouble because I have a boyfriend?" She rolled her eyes. _This was so 1850 of them. Hello Middle Ages! CJ had a girlfriend and they didn't give him half as much gripe. His girlfriend, Vanessa even had dinner with them sometimes_. "You don't fuss this much over CJ having a girlfriend," she said petulantly.

"CJ is seventeen years old! So don't you dare bring him into this!" Sarah told her. CJ had done the right thing and introduced them to his girlfriend, so that they weren't completely blindsided. "And unlike you, little Miss-I-Don't-Know-How-to-tell-the-truth, he told us about his girlfriend!"

Chuck continued to scroll through the messages and his eyes snapped in horror when he found a series of sexually suggestive pictures and romantic memes. Sarah looked down at the screen and if she wasn't pissed before, she was mad as hell now. There were pictures of him shirtless, with the caption "want to help me finish undress *wink*, another with him in just his boxers and another with a towel wrapped loosely around his waist, the V shape in the lower abdominal region clearly visible. Sarah was disgusted and understandably furious.

"Sexting Sariyah!" Sarah felt her blood boiling. She was way too young for this. "Sexting?! Have we not talked about this?"

"What is he getting in return?" Chuck asked, hating that he was having this conversation with his fourteen year old.

She bit her lip, hesitant. "Nothing."

"So, he just sends you pictures of himself?"

Sariyah nodded yes. Sarah wasn't even sure if she could believe her at this point. She had lied so much already for the evening,

"Do you send him anything?" Chuck asked again. Clearly he didn't believe her either.

"Daddy! I swear. I've never sent him anything like that. I've never sent those kind of pictures to anyone! Mommy, I'm sorry you have to believe me!" She was in tears again. Chuck went through all of her messages with Jake and didn't find anything incriminating. He was relieved about that. Still, the nerd in him told him that just because they weren't there didn't mean they didn't exist or hadn't at one point. Besides, there were some breaks in the conversation times and the tone of conversation didn't flow so he was sure that some of the messages shared had been deleted. He would be checking her online storage just to be sure. After tonight, he was unsure about a lot of things.

"You know you will be punished for this," Sarah said.

Chuck nodded. "No phone, no TV, nothing."

"And you're grounded."

She sucked her bottom teeth. It's not like she asked him to send the pictures. "Mommy," she cried, reminding Sarah of when she was much younger, so young that they didn't have to worry about her and boys because she thought they had cooties. "I'm not lying this time. I didn't sext with him."

Her cries were futile she realised. They didn't believe her. Her vision becoming blurred by tears, she leapt from the couch and ran up the stairs to the sanctuary of her room.

 **/\**

In his room, CJ was sitting on his bed, contemplative. He had heard almost everything. He felt sorry for Sariyah though. She never could take too much yelling and their parents had really gone in on her. He sighed and shuffled over to her room. He knocked twice but got no reply. He pressed his ear to the door and heard her sniffling. He felt awful for her and entered the room. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the complete darkness of the room, having just been in a brightly lit hallway, but when his eyes did focus, he saw her curled up into a ball in bed.

"Sariyah," he called out, walking over to her. She didn't acknowledge him and kept her back away from him. He leaned over to her bedside table and turned on her lamp. "It's ok, stop crying," he tried to soothe her. Her cries came harder.

"Leave me alone!" she snuffed.

"You're my baby sister; I can't leave you alone to be sad," he told her, his heart breaking for her. He wasn't one of those stereotypical big brothers who tried to portray a conventional macho image, so he wasn't afraid to show his feelings for her.

He waited for five minutes as she cried some more. When she finally sat up against the headboard, the comforter hunched about her body, he had a tissue in his hands for her.

"Thank you."

"Anything for you baby sis." He smiled widely at her.

"Mom and Dad hate me," she said after a moment.

He shook his head at the ludicrous nature of it all. "They could never hate you." Sure, they might be angry now, but they couldn't hate her or stay mad at her forever.

She shook her head forlornly. "You didn't see the look in their eyes."

"It'll be ok."

"You heard didn't you?" she asked. He nodded. _It was kind of hard not to. I wouldn't be surprised if Uncle Morgan heard...and he lives five houses down._ "I guess you don't believe me either?"

He looked in her eyes, and saw the sadness clouding them. "No, I do. Do you wanna talk about it?"

Sariyah nodded. She was tired of the yelling and at least CJ wouldn't yell at her. "I've had a thing going on with Jake."

"Which Jake?"

"Jake Smith," Sariyah responded.

He looked at her in disbelief. "Jake Smith? Are you serious Sariyah. Please tell me you're joking!"

"Oh please CJ," Sariyah seethed, "I don't need a lecture from you too."

"Sariyah, you've heard the rumors going around about him and his friends."

She rolled her eyes. "So just because you heard one stupid rumour you're gonna jump on the bandwagon too?" She did not need his attitude right now. "You're behaving no better than Mom and Dad," she spat angrily. "He's nice to me!"

"One stupid rumour Sariayh? That's what you're gonna call it?' he snarled. "He's a player and a womaniser Sariyah. Of course he's nice to you! He probably wants to get you into bed."

"Oh why don't you leave me the hell alone CJ!" She had had enough chastisement for the day.

"You know what he did to Vanessa's friend Macy. He slept with her Sariyah and he bragged about it to all of his friends. And when word got out that she was pregnant and that it was his, he refused to acknowledge her and tried to make her out to be some sort of slut. Or do you not remember any of this?"

Sariyah rolled her eyes. "Just because your girlfriend said that's what happened doesn't mean it's the gospel truth, CJ."

Her brother looked at her with wide eyes, in complete disbelief. "Are you serious? Macy had to move away!"

"She didn't have to do anything CJ. What happened is that her parents were too prissy and couldn't deal with the so called shame of having their daughter pregnant before she graduated."

"Are you hearing yourself?" He wanted to shake her back to reality. He could not believe that his sister was saying these things. He shook his head. With the way Sariyah was acting he could see why his parents were so angry. "You know, for your sake I hope this works out." _Jake? Jake freaking Smith? And there I was thinking he knew that she didn't hang out with delinquents and now I find out she's had a thing with a womanising jackass._

They heard small footsteps approaching and turned to the door when it opened. The light from the hallway allowed them to see the small form of their little sister in the doorway.

"Hey Skylar." CJ greeted her.

The five year old walked up to the bed with her stuffed dog that she'd named Bunny in her hand. She climbed up onto the bed.

"What are you doing up?" Sariyah asked. Her parents had put her to bed a little after dinner around eight fifteen.

"Momma and Daddy were yelling." Skylar said in a small voice, her lips quivering. "It woke me up."

CJ and Sariyah looked at each other alarmed, she had been up this whole time hearing all that noise. She noted that their little sister had unshed tears in her hazel eyes.

CJ drew her close in a hug and patted her back soothingly. "It's OK Sky."

"Momma angry?" She asked them. The older siblings exchanged glances, unsure of what to say.

"Um, she's a bit upset." Sariyah said after a moment.

"Momma yelled at 'Riyah?"

Sariyah looked down and CJ decided to take control of the situation. "Don't worry about that Sky," he said, ruffling her dirty blonde curls.

"You yelled at 'Riyah too," Skylar looked at her brother accusingly. "I heard you talking before I came in. You were using your angry voice."

"We were um, you know, we just disagree on something."

"Oh. I don't want my family to be mad," Skylar admitted with a glum expression.

"Sky I don't want you to worry about this. Okay?"

She nodded and turned to her big sister, noticing the frown on her face. "'Riyah sad?"

"Um, no, I'm fi-" Sariyah started, but found herself unable to continue with the lie. "I'll be OK."

Skylar scrambled over to her and kissed her sister on the cheek, also throwing her arms around her neck. "Don't be sad 'Riyah, I love you."

Sariyah smiled then, a genuine smile. "I love you too Sky."

CJ made an exaggerated noise of coughing and the girls turned to him, Sariyah glared at him while Skylar smiled toothily. "I love you too CJ. And I love Momma and Daddy and Auntie Ellie and Uncle Devon and-"

"Okay, we get it," Sariyah cut her off, knowing how her little sister liked to ramble.

"Sky, it's time to go back to bed. You want to be well rested for school don't you?" CJ said, looking at his watch and noticing that it was after ten.

The four year old shook her head defiantly. "I'm not sleepy."

"Sky," CJ said, "I'm not joking."

"We all have school tomorrow." It was hard enough getting her up in the morning when she did go to bed on time; he could only imagine the terror it would be to wake her up after she went to bed late. "Sky, you should go on to bed," Sariyah encouraged.

Skylar pouted but eventually relented. "Night Sariyah." She said, kissing her sister's cheek. "Love you."

"Good night Skylar. Love you too."

CJ got up from the bed and held out his hand for Skylar to take. She looked at the proffered hand and frowned. "Up CJ."

He sighed, but relented and picked her up. He exchanged good nights with his younger sister and left the room, carrying Skylar back to her room.

In Skylar's room, CJ tucked her in and turned on the night light. He turned to leave but she tugged his hand. "I'm not sleepy CJ." She whined.

"Just close your eyes and you'll fall to sleep eventually." CJ tried. She was restless and tossed quite a bit, but CJ stayed with her until she fell asleep. When she did, he slowly eased out of the bed and secured the covers over her. Then he turned on the nightlight and slipped out of the room. He saw that Sariyah's light was still on so he knocked and entered.

"What do you want CJ?"

He watched her as she stood in front of her closet looking for tomorrow's outfit. "Sariyah, you know I wouldn't intentionally hurt you," he began, hoping that his sister would face him. She didn't. "I said what I did about Jake because I don't want anyone else to hurt you either." Seeing that she was not going to say anything, CJ sighed and turned on his heel to leave the room. "I love you okay?"

 **/\**

Sarah flopped down on the couch, drained form their talk with Sariyah. Chuck walked into the kitchen and returned to her with a bottle of Johnny Walker Black and two glasses. He poured them a glass each and they downed it quickly and wordlessly. Sarah filled her glass again and chugged it back, welcoming the burn that came as the alcohol made its way down her throat.

"Chuck? Sexting? " Sarah sobbed. "I don't know how...I should've God! I should've known that she was beginning to get interested in boys!"

He rubbed her back soothingly. He was mad at himself as well. "We'll work this out. We always do." He said comfortingly.

Half an hour later, Sarah had calmed down enough. She and Chuck had discussed things; it was still a shock to her system. She realised that she had been a bit too harsh and the approach she had taken might not have been the best to get Sariyah to talk to them. After showering, she made her way to Sariyah's bedroom. She knocked lightly and entered, but was disappointed to find Sariyah asleep. Their talk would have to wait. She kissed Sariyah on her forehead and joined Chuck in their bedroom.

"So, what are we gonna do about this Jake guy? Talk to his parents about the whole thing? Orrrrrr I can rally up Casey and Devon and scare the living daylight out of him." A serious threat to rip him limb from limb..from limb in addition to 'accidentally' letting him see Casey's Sig P229 would set him straight. Sarah chuckled at that, but it faded when she realised Chuck was being serious.

* * *

 **A/N: Feel free to review, even if it's as a guest. And to those of you who wished me well in my exams, thank you. I think they have gone well so far.**

 **If Chuck and/or Sarah seem(s) harsh, it was intentional. I hope it's still believable though. As a teen myself I do think my parents are unjustly harsh at times and don't always allow me (or my siblings for that matter) to give my account of something before they launch into a tirade.**

 **The next part should be up within a week or so. You can expect a bit more family drama as CJ will also get into some trouble, and Sariyah will find herself in some more hot water with her parents.**

 **Until next time,**

 **xoxoxo**

 **~Bg. 23/05/2015.**

 **Chapter edited 25/05/2017**


	2. Chapter 2 - More Trouble Sariyah?

**A/N: I know at the end of chapter one I said I'd have this out in two weeks, but forgive me- my last couple of exams required lots of revision. Oh, and the Law almost hit me for 6...I swear I have never seen more difficult questions in my life. BUT, that's all over now, and I have embraced summer with open arms (even though it is Hurricane Season) .**

 **Here's the next chapter and I hope you enjoy reading it.**

 **Charah vs the Teens, Chapter 2 -More Trouble Sariyah?**

* * *

CJ sipped his orange juice, and found himself wondering how the situation between his sister and his parents would turn out. Of all the people at school that she had to get into a secret fling or relationship or whatever she was calling it, did it have to be Jake Smith? She hadn't gone any further than admitting to having a thing with Jake but the way she had been defending him last night made him wonder what sort of things Jake had been telling her. Maybe Jake was a cool guy. He knew it was inevitable that she would become interested in boys and his parents, unless they expected her '...to abjure forever the society of men...endure the livery of a nun...to live a barren sister all her life, chanting faint hymns to the cold, fruitless moon...' as Shakespeare had put it; then they should have expected it as well. He chuckled to himself - for three years he had done Shakespeare and for the life of him, he could never really remember the quotes correctly but here was remembering A Midsummer Night's Dream when it was no longer of academic import.

His parents had seemed pretty mad when they looked through herphone and he sensed that there was something much bigger going on there than just her having a secret relationship. He didn't think Sariyah would be confiding in him about it after the way things went last night.

His thoughts were interrupted when Sariyah came into the kitchen. She made eye contact with him but quickly averted her eyes. He kept his eyes on her as she moved to the fridge, grabbed the fruit punch juice and then moved on to the cupboards for her utensils. "Seriously Sariyah? You know sometimes you really get on like a little –" He stopped just short of the insult and shook his head. He would be the bigger person. "Good morning."

"Morning," Sariyah replied, sitting at the table and putting some pancakes into her plate. "Did you make breakfast?"

CJ shook his head no. When he had come down, his mother had been finishing up and he'd eaten with his parents and little sister.

"Oh." She nodded, eating a forkful of scrambled eggs. The tension between them returned as Sariyah ate, purposely not making eye contact with her brother.

CJ once again reaffirmed that his sister was just as hard headed as his parents could be. While he didn't expect them to be all buddy-buddy this morning, he certainly did not expect her to have this sort of attitude. "Are you gonna talk to Mom and Dad?"

Sariyah shrugged. After their behaviour yesterday, she saw no reason to open up to them, at least not if they were going to react like that. "I don't really see the point." She finished eating and began clearing her table space. "Anyway, I'm gonna finish getting ready so I can catch the bus."

"You're not gonna let Mom drop you?" CJ questioned, getting up from the table as well and moving to the sink.

Sariyah shook her head. "And subject myself to a tense car ride filled with glances and possibly more yelling or chastising? Nah, I don't think so."

 _Oh this is just great. She's avoiding our parents. Hopefully she avoids Jake too!_

 **/\**

"I can't believe Mr Spencer is making us do a prosaic, poetic or comic interpretation of 'Twelfth Night'!" Sariyah's best friend Laura complained as they made their way to Math class. "Who even does that?" She huffed.

"It won't be that bad. Who knows, you might even have some fun."

"I know you didn't just use fun to describe English Literature of all things," Laura joked. "Why are we still best friends?"

"Because you'd be absolutely lost without me."

"And you'd be boring without me."

"Whatever," Sariyah laughed, bumping her shoulder playfully.

"So, bestie dearest, care to tell me why you didn't message me back last night? What if I had been having a crisis? What if I had needed your help in constructing a reply to Oliver's message?"

Sariyah glanced around uncomfortably. "My parents took my phone away."

"They what?" She nearly screeched. Her parents had been threatening to take away hers as well, but she had managed to avoid it so far. She'd probably be scarred for life from the withdrawal. "Why would they do that?"

"Because they found out about my thing with Jake."

Laura stopped walking and tugged Sariyah on her arm, pulling her aside. "And?"

Sariyah shrugged. She didn't really want to get into this again, and especially not in the hallway where there were always prying ears who were itching for the latest gossip. "Can we talk about this later?"

"You can't throw that out and not elaborate," Laura chided. She looked at Sariyah with wide pleading grey eyes. "Deets, you have to give me more than that."

"My parents freaked out," Sariyah delved into it a little bit more. She wasn't going to go any further than that. Tugging on her strawberry blonde hair best friend's hand, they continued their trek to the classroom.

"So are you gonna talk to him at lunch?" Laura prodded as they took their seats in the second row of the classroom.

Sariyah looked at her friend, bewildered. "What part of my parents freaking out did you not get?"

"I figured you'd have to tell him that you guys need to take a break or something," Laura reasoned. "Just how much do you parents know?"

Sariyah pursed her lips. "Everything."

"Everything?" Laura parroted, her voice rising. "Like everything, everything?"

Sariyah shot her a dirty look, telling her to keep her voice at a normal level at least. There was no reason for her entire class to know her business. "Uh huh."

"What did they say about the picture you sent?"

Sariyah's eyes widened. Oh crap, she had forgotten about the picture she sent. It had been weeks ago and it had slipped her mind. Laura noticed this and was about to launch into another tirade of questions but their teacher came in, dropping a stack of papers on the desk and silencing the buzzing conversations.

"Good morning class," the balding teacher greeted, "please put away all your books. Today you will be doing a pop quiz."

The children groaned as the teacher began handing out the examination papers. Flipping though the papers, she realised that most of the questions were on circle theorems and vectors. She hadn't studied those in a while. Sariyah sucked her teeth. _This was just great._

 **/\**

"So, I probably failed that Math test," Laura exasperated. She and Sariyah were now sitting at their usual table in the school cafeteria, waiting for their other friends to join.

She snorted. "Well me too." If the marks from this test did go to their mid-term reports, then her average would be going down. _As if my parents weren't down my throat enough as it was. Just add dropping grades to it. Marvellous. Just marvellous._

Laura scoffed and brushed her bangs from her face. "The day you fail a test will be the day the zombie apocalypse happens."

"Well I hope you have your chainsaw and crowbar handy, because that day is today." There were just some times when you know that almost everything you wrote on a test was garbage and this was one of those times.

Laura laughed before taking a sip of her water, idly looking around the room to see if their friends had arrived yet. She caught sight of Jake coming through the doors and scanning the room.

"Um, Sariyah, we have a bit of a problem."

"What?" Sariyah asked, briefly stopping her task of unwrapping her sandwich.

"Jake, at your three o' clock."

Sariyah looked up, and glanced around the room, her eyes finally landing on the teen who was making his way toward them.

Sariyah's mouth twitched as she considered her options. Fight or flight. She really needed to talk to him but she was unsure exactly how what to say. She did not want to make a scene in the cafeteria and her gut told her that Jake would.

"I can create a diversion if you need me to," Laura offered, also having seen Jake coming.

The sounds of a tray clattering and Jake yelling pulled her out of her musings. Sariyah turned to see a fuming Jake arguing with her brother. CJ was apologizing for having spilled a container of greasy lasagne and a large diet coke all over Jake.

Laura giggled. "I guess we don't have to worry about him," she quipped when a still fuming Jake stormed out of the cafeteria.

CJ walked over to the two and sat down next to his sister. "What's up Laura?"

"Same old same old. I think I just flunked a Math test though."

"Ah, no worries, I'm sure you can make up for it on the next one." He smiled.

Laura laughed. "Heh, there's always hope."

"What about you sis? Did you ace that test?"

Sariyah was surprised that he was even engaging in banter with her. "Nope, I probably failed it too. What little knowledge I did have of circle theorems and vectors wasn't helpful."

Laura clapped her hands, drawing the attention of the siblings to her. "Enough talk about Math... CJ, I give you props on your little accident."

CJ looked at her in confusion. "Me? I have no idea what you are referring to."

"Come on CJ." Sariyah shoulder bumped him. "You think you are so slick."

"Hey, it's not my fault Dad passed on some of his clumsiness to me."

Sariyah snorted. She knew he had a cat like grace about him. "Whatever."

CJ's expression turned serious and Laura, noticing this, turned her attention away from the Bartowski siblings. "I want you to stay away from Jake."

Sariyah smacked her lips. "I don't need this shit from you CJ."

He raised his eyebrows at her foul language but chose not to comment on it. "I'm serious Sariyah."

"Whatever."

"I mean it."

"Don't you have somewhere to be?" She was tired of his presence.

"If you'll excuse me," CJ said, rising from his seat when two other girls around their age came to the table, "I have a lab write up to finish. Have fun talking about who's hotter- Ian Somerhalder or Chace Crawford- or whatever and whoever you spend your lunch time talking about." He laughed at the looks the girls were sending him. "Bye." After stealing a couple of chips from Laura's plate - an action which earned him a swat on the wrist- he smiled at them and was gone.

 **/\**

Sariyah and a group of her friends sat on a bench, discussing the latest episode of their favourite TV show as they waited to be collected.

CJ came running up to them. "Sariyah, we gotta go."

"Go where?" She hadn't seen either of their parents pull up in the car park.

"Grandma is here. Come on, I'll explain once we're in the car."

Sariyah quickly gathered her things and bade her friends goodbye and she and CJ made their way to the car park.

Sariyah's thoughts ran a mile a minute. "CJ, Grandma, could either of you please tell me what's going on?" She asked as she got into the back seat and put on her seatbelt. "Why didn't Mum or Dad come and pick us up?"

"Because they're at the hospital." Mary replied.

The hospital. _Ohmyfreakinggosh_. She hoped nothing had happened to them. "Why? Are they hurt? Were they in an accident?" She hadn't said much to them that morning besides a simple good morning and see you later. She was simply more concerned with limiting her interaction with them to as little as possible.

"Oh no dear, your parents are fine," Mary began to clarify and Sariyah calmed down a bit. 'It's Skylar."

 **/\**

Skylar had been brought to the hospital, having been stung by a yellow jacket during recess. Chuck and Sarah had been called immediately. Her entire arm was red and swollen from the sting on the hand and she also had a low-grade fever. When it was time for the doctor to take a blood sample, Skylar whimpered when she saw the needle and edged closer to her parents. Chuck had to distract her by singing one of her favourite songs from Sesame Street.

Currently, Sarah had stepped out of the room so she could give Emma a call. Chuck meanwhile was with Skylar, trying to keep her mind off the fact that she was in a hospital. Skylar Bartowski was not a fan of the institution and Chuck was doing his best to keep her in high spirits.

"My tongue has hair on it Daddy," Skylar scrunched up her face.

Chuck smoothed down her hair and smiled down at her lightly. "Once the medication kicks in it'll go back to normal."

"Can we go home now?"

Chuck shook his head. "We will have to see what the doctor says."

 **/\**

When Chuck and Sarah brought home Skylar, it was after eleven. They thanked Mary for her help, and after Mary inquired about Skylar's health, she was off. They expected the older children to be asleep by now, so they were cognizant of their noise levels. Chuck carried Sariyah up to her room and after pulling back the covers, he laid her down. Sarah meanwhile searched her drawers for her pyjamas. Working together, they changed her into her pyjamas and tucked her under the covers.

They sat in comfortable silence, each lost in thought about Skylar. They were both relieved when the doctor had said it was ok to take her home. CJ and Sariyah looked on at their parents for a moment before he finally cleared his throat, alerting them to their presence.

"Mom, Dad, how is she?"

"She's ok. The swelling has gone down, and she said it wasn't itching." replied Chuck, glancing down at his little girl.

"Oh, well that's great." Sariyah spoke for the first time, keeping her gaze mostly on Skylar.

"Uh huh," Sarah agreed. "Why aren't you in bed?"

CJ shrugged. Their grandmother had ordered them to bed sometime after ten, but sleep had not been easy to come by. Both were worried about their sister. They had wanted to go to the hospital to see her, but when Mary had called, Skylar was asleep. They also had to take into consideration the fact that they had homework assignments due the following day.

"We just wanted to make sure Sky was ok."

Chuck and Sarah shared a smile. It was heart-warming to see the closeness between their children and even more so the love and concern they had fir each other. It reminded Chuck of his relationship with Ellie.

Sarah yawned and this didn't escape Chuck. "It's been a long day; I think we could all use some sleep."

CJ agreed and bid them all good night before leaving. Sariyah turned to leave also, but Chuck cleared his throat and told her to wait for them in the hallway.

Sariyah lagged behind, her gaze uneasily darting between her parents when they exited Skylar's room and the pictures on the wall.

"Sariyah, you've been avoiding us," Chuck began.

"We need to talk," Sarah added.

Sariyah cocked her head slightly to the side. "I'm not talking to Jake anymore." She informed them, hoping that that piece of information would placate her parents for now. Sarah was somewhat pleased by that. The three stood in the hallway, Sariyah shifting slightly on her feet as she wondered if her parents would delve into this further. To save herself from that possibility, she faked a yawn, and after telling them good night, she scurried away from them to the sanctuary of her room.

Finally alone, she reflected on the day's events.

 _Sariyah had forgotten one of the text books she needed to complete some homework and she rushed back to her locker. Once she found the book, she placed it in her knapsack and made her way down the hall. As she passed one of the classrooms, she was sure she heard Jake's voice. Curious, she turned the knob._

 _"_ _Jake?" Her eyes widened in shock._

 _"_ _Shit!" He bent to pull up his pants while the girl hopped off of the table and fixed her skirt. She then whispered something in Jake's ear which made him blush and proceeded to leave the room, bumping into Sariyah in the door way._

 _"_ _Why don't you go catch up to her? You can finish what you were doing." She was surprised she could form a coherent sentence. Her brother had been right._

 _"It's not what you think," Jake began, moving to embrace her._

 _"Bullshit Jake!" She snarled and left the room._

 _She had rejoined her friends at the front of the school and engaged in the conversation as though everything was fine. As though she hadn't realised how big a fool she had been. But when she had gotten home, she told her grandmother and brother that she had a ton of homework and proceeded to lock her door. Only then had she allowed the tears to fall._

* * *

 **~/0\~**

"Momma, I wanna go to school." Skylar announced, resisting Sarah's attempts to keep her in bed.

"Baby, you can go to school tomorrow."

Skylar shook her head defiantly. She didn't want to miss school. "No Momma, I wanna go today."

Sarah tried explaining to Skylar that since she had been in the hospital yesterday, it was best if she stayed home to make sure she really was feeling better. Despite the fact that she told her daughter that both she and Chuck would stay home with her, Skylar was displeased and frowned at her. Chuck entered Skylar's bedroom, a warm smile on his face.

"Good morning sweetie," Chuck sat down next to Sarah on the bed and leaned in to kiss Skylar on the forehead. "How are you feeling?"

"Daddyyyyy," Skylar whined, "Momma won't let me go to school." She pouted and looked accusingly at her mother.

"We just want to make sure you're ok."

"I not sick Daddy." Skylar huffed, annoyed at the situation. "I feel better."

Sarah sighed. She might feel better right now, but there was the chance that she would feel ill again as the day progressed. "Skylar, no. You'll be staying home."

Skylar frowned at both her parents. She looked at them, with sad eyes, pleading. They didn't cave so she tuned on the waterworks. She sniffled and the water began to collect in her eyes as Skylar continued to look at her parents. Chuck and Sarah glanced at each other. They knew that Skylar was trying to get them to bend to her will.

"I wanna go to school!" Skylar wailed, the tears leaking out of her eyes and streaking her face.

"Skylar." Chuck said, his voice warning. They wouldn't let her get away with tantrums.

She stopped her wailing momentarily, stunned by her father's sharp voice.

"Morning guys," they heard CJ greet from the doorway. "What's going on?"

Skylar bolted from the bed and ran to her brother, tugging on his pyjama bottoms so that he could lift her up. "Momma and Daddy don't want me to go to school." She whined, burying her face in the crook of his neck and sniffling.

CJ chuckled to himself. If he were in her position, he'd revel in the opportunity to miss school. "It's ok Sky." CJ tried to placate her, rubbing his hand up and down her back.

"Noooo, I have ta go today." Skylar insisted. "Today we get to play with clay." Did they not realize the importance of this? She had been thinking about what she would make since forever. She didn't want to miss it.

Chuck and Sarah silently communicated. The doctor did say it was a mild reaction, and since she had been given the medication yesterday Skylar seemed fine. Chuck got up from the bed and took Skylar from CJ, declaring that it was time for her to brush her teeth and then have breakfast. Sarah meanwhile would call Ellie and to confirm that there would be minimal harm in sending her to school.

 **/\**

"Wake up lazy," CJ yelled, hitting Sariyah lightly with a pillow.

She grumbled into another pillow and rolled over onto her stomach, pulling the covers closer around her body.

"Nuh uh Sariyah, get up or we will be late for school." Sariyah made no attempts at moving so he decided to take charge of the situation. Grabbing the bottom of the covers, he engaged in tug of war with his younger sister. Although Sariyah was drifting between sleep and consciousness, she managed to put up a fight, clinging to the covers desperately. Eventually CJ was able to pull the covers completely off of her. He dumped them on the floor, so that she couldn't easily reach them and snuggle. Then he walked over to her window and pulled back the curtains, allowing the sunlight to fully penetrate the room.

"CJ!" Sariyah growled from under her pillow when she felt the warmth from the sun rays on her back.

He walked back over to the bed and pulled away all the pillows, forcing her to greet the day. Sariyah squinted at him. "I'm gonna kill you."

"Would you rather have had Mom come to wake you up?"

Sariyah shook her head. Things had still been tense with her parents, so she was glad that CJ had been the one to give her a wake up call.

"I guess I know what I'm giving you for Christmas," CJ quipped, picking up a damaged alarm clock from the floor.

"Stupid alarm clock." Sariyah muttered. She vaguely remembered hurling it at the wall when it alarmed at half past six. Gosh she hated mornings.

"Anyway, I call first dibs on the shower. That should give you enough time to become fully awake."

When he closed the door behind him, Sariyah reached over to the side of the bed and picked up one of the pillows. With a heavy sigh, she snuggled into it. She hadn't picked put an outfit for today yet but she figured she would throw on a jeans and the first shirt that didn't need ironing. Besides, CJ usually took long in the shower and the time he spent in there would be best employed by running into the welcoming arms of sleep.

 **/\**

Downstairs in the kitchen, Skylar was blissfully eating her breakfast, happy that her Auntie Ellie had managed to convince her parents to let her to go to school. Across the table, Chuck and Sarah were drinking their coffee and discussing Sariyah and plotting their course of action.

They had originally planned to talk to Sariyah yesterday when she came home from school, but with Skylar's allergic reaction, most of their focus had shifted elsewhere. However, that didn't mean that they had completely forgotten about the issue with Sariyah. Both of them knew that they could not allow said issue to be swept under the carpet. There was already a level of uneasiness and an underlying tension between them and their teenage daughter which could not be allowed to fester.

"So, this evening..."Chuck said.

Sarah nodded. By the hook or the crook, they would be talking about this sexting thing with Sariyah.

* * *

 **~/0\~**

Sariyah yawned lazily and checked her watch as she made her way towards her locker. She noted that it was only 9:20 AM. She still had another six and a half periods left. She had forgotten her History text book in her locker, and since the substitute was being a troll, he said they couldn't share. She was forced to go get hers so she could complete the assignment.

"Sariyah!" She heard someone yell her name.

She looked up in the direction her name was called from and she groaned. She didn't want to speak to him right now. She pretended that she hadn't heard or seen him and grabbing the heavy text book, turned around and headed towards the direction of her class. She heard Jake's sneakers squeaking against the floor and sighed when he caught up to her. He stopped in front of her, blocking her path. She tried to go left, and then right, but he mimicked her movements. She glared at him. She did not have time for this. If a teacher passed the hallway and saw them there, they'd be in trouble for not being in class.

"Sariyah," seventeen year old Jake stood almost a foot taller than her. He ran his hand through his ginger hair and sighed, "Would you just hear me out? I've been texting you but you don't reply. I tried talking to you this morning after assembly but that was a bust. I just need to explain."

Thinking about him messaging her reminded her that she was still on punishment. Her parents would not be amused if she was caught in the hallway with him when she was supposed to be in class, especially considering that she had said that she wasn't speaking to him anymore. "Don't you have a class?"

He shrugged. "Yea, but I got a hall pass. I was just coming from the fountain when I saw you. I guess today's my lucky day." He smiled.

"Look Jake, I've got a History assignment to complete, excuse me." She tried to make her way around him but he pushed her back lightly.

She growled at him. "I said excuse me."

"Not until you at least promise me that we can talk about us later." When he had first started talking to her a couple weeks ago she was cool and as he put on the charm he believed that she was into him. And yes, getting caught with another girl yesterday had put a little wrench in his plans but that was all he would allow it to be. A delay. He was certain that if he could just get her alone for a few minutes that he could draw her to him once more. He had put too much effort into her for her to just blow him off like this. No, he was not done with her as he had not gotten what he had wanted yet. She was beautiful and had a 'girl next door' type of thing going on and even though she was only fourteen and not as busty or curvy as some of the other girls he had dealt with, Jake was very aware and appreciative of how well her body was developing. _Thank God for puberty._

Sure sweetening her up was a bit of a lengthy process. Most of the girls he had previously gone after had been easy. But Sariyah Bartowski was a challenge and he was anxious to reap the rewards from a successful undertaking. He had had to go through the motions of asking her mundane questions like what was her favourite colour, TV and all that to establish a base for their 'relationship'. And that had taken him longer than it ever had with his previous conquests. When she had finally accepted his proposition that they be an item he thought he had her right where he wanted her. He had even bragged to his older friends that he was on the precipice of taking her virginity. It was sort of a game between him and his buddies to see who could bed the most girls in a month. Scores for well, scoring were tripled if the girl was a virgin. Of course they often made their results superflous but they celebrated it all the same by going to a bar in a shadier part of town where the bartender couldn't give two hoots about seeing an ID and drank their way into merriment.

"I'm supposed to what? Throw myself at you after I saw you having sex with another girl yesterday?" She huffed and wondered why she was even giving him the time day. "And not that you even deserve an explanation, but I won't be replying to any messages because my parents took away my phone and they saw the pictures you sent me. I told you that you shouldn't be sending them but you just don't listen!" She added harshly.

He made a face. Pulling out his phone, he smirked. He found their conversations and scrolled through them. "Oh really?!" He taunted. "I didn't get that impression that you wanted me to stop. It's not my fault that you're a little slut who can't hide things from Mommy dearest properly."

Sariyah's cerulean eyes turned a darker shade. _Did he just call me a slut!? Oh hell no!_ When she spoke, her voice was laced with fury. "This is the last time I'm gonna ask you to move out of my way, you incompetent jerk! And if it hasn't sunk into that thick skull of your yet, this thing we had, it's over." He was surprised by her retort and she was able to walk pass him without any interference. However, he was not about to let her go just like that and he grabbed her arm, pulling her back to him. "Let me go," she said through clenched teeth.

He backed her up against the lockers and leaned down to her eye level, "Why? Are you one of those girls who like playing hard to get Sariyah?" True she had told him to stop on an occassion or two, but he knew this game too well. Other girls had told him the same before but he would lure them in unitl they reached a point that they didn't even realise when they started playing right into his hands. In the times that he had gone after the cute, shy girls, often they were surprised by the first picture but by the sixth or seventh one when which was usually with him in a towel loosely around his waist, he would have filled their minds with such sexual thoughts that they would be lusting after him and would easily give in. Did he feel bad about it? Hell no. Most times though, he kept the relationships or rather 'sexuationships' 'situationships' with the girls going for at least three months before he would break things off. After all, why should stick with one piece of meat when there were fresh pieces in the market? Working the girls at his school though was kind of tricky, especially after his fling with Macy. Rumours were circulated about him being a womaniser but he knew how to get what he wanted.

He refused to accept that he would not be adding Sariyah Bartowski as another notch in his bedpost.

"There's no shame in being a slut, baby," Jake chided. "Seriously, look at Amber Rose and her Slut Shame walk."

She refused to look at him and turned her head on the side, wondering how much trouble she'd be in if she did what she thought her mother would do in this situation. Surely a kick to his groin followed by a swift upper cut or round house kick would be justified. Wouldn't it? Sariyah gasped when she felt Jake kissing her on her neck which was exposed to him, and then he sucked her skin. _Was he out of his mind?!_

She pushed him off her, and he placed hands against the locker, boxing her in and staring at her intently. She kept her gaze on him, unwavering and with murder in her eyes. He was going to pay for this! Sariyah heard someone clear their throat and their heads snapped to see their principal staring at them. Well, this just got ugly, she thought.

Jake distanced himself from her. The principal motioned for the two to come to her. "Why are you in the hallways during class time?"

"I came for my text book." Sariyah replied.

"And I went to the fountain."

The principal, Mrs. Olford shook her head. "Is that what they're calling it these days? From what I saw, you two were displaying PDA. I'm sure you're both aware that that is not condoned here." The principal informed them.

Sariyah's jaw dropped. That was not what was going on. "Ma'am, I can explain..." She began, only to be cut off.

"You two are in violation of the school rules. For that, both of you will be suspended for two days. Follow me to the administration office so your parents can be informed and collect you."

Sariyah was in shock. _What is wrong with the adults in my life? Did they all just start making judgements without knowing all the facts?! Suspended?_ Her parents were not going to take this news well at all. The principal turned on her heel and made her way to the office. Sariyah glanced at Jake. He was calm about the whole thing. And was that a smirk on his face? She hated smirkers. _The nerve of this slime ball! This was so unfair._ She took the text book and swung it at him, causing him to fall back on to the lockers, disoriented. Sariyah smiled satisfied. She had managed to knock the smile off his face. The principal looked back when she heard the metallic noise, but by then she was far enough from him that it didn't look like she had anything to do with it. "Pick up the pace Mr. Smith," she chided.

 **/\**

Sarah was in the middle of a presentation to potential German clients when her secretary interrupted. She excused herself for a moment and took the call. Chuck waited for her to return to the boardroom and looked at her concerned, when he saw her sullen expression. She walked over to him and mumbled to him that Sariyah was suspended and one of them needed to go pick her up.

Chuck was surprised. His daughter was suspended? _It was barely ten o' clock! What could she had gotten herself into in the one hour she was at school?_ If she was trying to create some sort of 'bad girl image', they'd be putting a stop to that. He sighed, but offered to go collect her. Sarah was leading this project, and he had complete faith that she would be able to see it through; especially after working on it for the last month and a half. He apologized to the clients and his colleagues, explained that it was a family emergency and left the meeting. For the rest of the meeting, Sarah's mind was elsewhere as she wondered what she and Chuck were going to do to get their daughter back on track. Though she was able to finish the meeting and secure the contract, Sarah's mind was preoccupied with thoughts of Sariyah.

She made her way to her office and instructed her secretary that she was not to be disturbed unless it was Chuck. Plopping down into her office chair, she kicked off her heels and closed her eyes, idly spinning the chair. She felt at a loss with Sariyah. She had grudgingly admitted to herself and Chuck that the way they had initially handled the issue was not the best, and that is why they intended to talk to her this evening. During that talk, she would have tried her hardest to keep her emotions under wraps and not lash out prematurely at her daughter. She had been preparing herself for said talk- mentally and emotionally. But, now that she was suspended, Sarah felt the worry and anger at Sariyah's behaviour bubbling up again, itching to be released. Her head began to hurt as she thought more about it and rubbing her temples did nothing to relieve the dull thud. Sighing, she picked up her phone and dialled her mother, hoping that a conversation with Emma would ease her mind, if only for a short while.

 **/\**

"What happened?" Chuck asked, stepping inside the attendance office. Anger was clearly evident in his voice. He stepped to the desk to sign Sariyah's dismissal papers and turned around and looked at his daughter.

"Daddy, I -"

"She was found in the hallway with a boy leaning against the lockers in an intimate embrace during period one," the administrator said.

Sariyah looked at the man with wide eyes _. An intimate embrace?! Was this some sort of a sick joke?_

Chuck clenched his jaw. _Apparently the picture fiasco wasn't enough_. He turned to Sariyah, "Let's go!"

Once in the car, Chuck messaged Sarah to let her know he was back on his way. He looked over at Sariyah and frowned when he saw the red mark on her neck. He growled. "So, this is your thing now? Receiving hickeys on your neck while you're supposed to be in class? I swear Sariyah; I don't know what's going on with you anymore."

Sariyah pressed her hands to her face. She knew her father still didn't trust her. She had refused to talk to them following the night when they found out about the pictures and she knew that they were upset about that. This latest incident would shatter the fragile balance already between them. She really hated Jake Smith right now.

Chuck started the car, purposely keeping his sight away from Sariyah. The drive to CI was uncomfortable for both of them.

When Chuck pulled into his car space at CI, he heard Sariyah sniffling. He hated when she cried, but right now, he couldn't coddle her. Sariyah dried her eyes and opened the car door. She was not going to enter her parents' company with tears in her eyes. They walked up to the forty story building which served as CI's head office in silence. Sariyah usually loved coming here, but today, she was dreading going inside, because that meant that her father would be telling his mother what happened. Chuck opened the door for her, and followed behind, nodding to the security guards and the receptionist. They then made their way to the elevator. He pressed the 35 button and waited. The elevator door opened on the floor. "Go to the break room. I'm gonna get your mother and we'll be there in a minute." She nodded and did as she was told.

Inside the break room, Sariyah banged her head against the table. This was so messed up. Maybe if she banged hard enough she would pass out. That would be better than having to face her parents. She felt a hand on her shoulder and tensed, she knew the hand was too light to be her father's and though it was light enough to be her mother's, the arm was too hairy.

When she looked up, she saw her Uncle Morgan looking down at her. He pulled up a chair and sat down next to her. "Wanna tell me why you're trying to give yourself a concussion by banging your head against the table?"

"I got suspended," she told him.

Morgan was at a loss for words. He remembered Chuck had said that she was giving them some trouble- raising her voice at them, spending way too much time on her phone and wearing some of Sarah's makeup even though she had been told not to- but he thought maybe Chuck was just overreacting to the normal teenager phase. But now, hearing that she was suspended, which was not in her character, he wondered if Chuck had not been overreacting. He hoped Chuck and Sarah would be able to get to the bottom of it, and that when his time came to deal with his own daughter who was now twelve, that he and Alex were ok.

Morgan looked up and saw Sarah and Chuck making their way toward the break room. He patted Sariyah on the head. "Hang in there, and remember Uncle Morgan is always here if you need to talk." He left the room to give the family some privacy.

Sariyah watched him leave. She wanted him to stay. If he was here, he could be the mediator; maybe his parents wouldn't be too hard on her. She watched Morgan's retreating from until he fully disappeared from sight before turning to her parents,

Sarah had her arms crossed. Sariyah knew she was furious. She had been on the receiving end of this look far too frequently lately. "Sariyah, what are you doing?"

 _Besides being misunderstood and written off as guilty without a chance to explain myself?_ "Nothing."

"It's obviously something if you're getting suspended!" Sarah yelled.

"The pictures, the lies, the makeup, the damn hickey! It's getting out of control!" Chuck yelled as well.

Sariyah flinched. They were both being loud and a few of their employees had glanced to the break room. Sarah followed her eyes and turned back to her. "People overhearing us should be the last thing you're thinking about," Sarah started, "We have bigger fish to fry. Why did you get suspended?" Chuck had already told her, but she wanted to hear what Sariyah had to say.

"It wasn't my fault." Sariyah defended herself, "I got my history book from my locker and I was going back to class when Jake-"

Sarah immediately cut her off when she uttered the boy's name. "Jake?" The name made her furious. "This involves him? I thought you said you weren't speaking to him anymore?" That was the only thing she had told them about this whole Jake fiasco.

"Or did you lie about that too?" Chuck interrupted, stopping Sarah from continuing her tirade.

"Mommy, I was letting him know that there wasn't anything between us anymore. He wouldn't let me pass," she said desperately.

 _She shouldn't have had to break up with him in the first place._ "That hickey on your neck says something completely different," Sarah said. "Were you breaking up or making up?"

"It's not my fault!" Sariyah yelled. She had enough of this. "He's the one who kissed me, and I pushed him away. That's when the principal found us." She was furious with her parents right now. "You two expect me to be perfect all the time. And I made one mistake and that perfect image you created was shattered, and now you won't believe me when I'm telling the truth."

"Let's get some things straight." Chuck said. "We don't expect you to be perfect." They didn't hold their children to unattainably high standards, but they did expect some things from them which were reasonable. "We expect that you'd tell the truth. But this is a case of the boy who cried wolf. You broke our trust Sariyah, and that trust will need to be rebuilt. You've lied numerous times, even when we've given you more than one opportunity to tell the truth."

"How do you want me to talk to you when you never listen?" Sariyah yelled.

By now, the few employees who had been there when Sariyah came in had left the floor, unaccustomed to seeing their bosses so angry.

"And another thing, you've been raising your voice at us an awful lot lately. I suggest you take your tone down a notch or two. We are your parents and you will not talk to us like that."

She snorted. "But you can talk to me like I'm a piece of trash or something?! Geeez! How equitable of you!"

"Sariyah," Sarah said sharply and glared at her. Sariyah stared right back, fed up with their behaviour.

"You must really want to pull off this rebellious phase or good girl gone bad or whatever the hell it is really badly." Chuck commented. "Your behaviour is unacceptable. You're on punishment."

She rolled her eyes. "Newsflash Daddy! I'm already on punishment!" She said angrily. "What are you gonna do? Ship me off to some boarding school in Paris? Have Uncle Casey get into contact with some of his buddies and ship me off to West Point?"

"That's not a bad idea," Sarah mused.

"It actually might not be! Cause at least I'd get the hell away from you!" Sariyah retorted.

Her parents ignored the jab and continued. "You can't seem to keep yourself out of trouble. We decided that you will volunteer a few hours per day at the homeless shelter and the children's home alternately."

"That way, you can fulfil your service hours for graduation."

Sariyah stared at Chuck, her mouth agape. She didn't have a problem with helping others, but this was just taking it too far. "But, but..." She stuttered. Her parents were so unfair. "I'm only fourteen."

"How convenient that you remember your age now but you couldn't when we said no boyfriends till sixteen."

Sariyah growled. _It was just two year's difference!_ "I have four years to complete them."

"Well, you're doing all forty this year." Sarah countered.

Sariyah scowled. When she stood up, the chair rolled backwards and hit the wall. "Argh! I am so sick of the both of you!" She stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her. At that point, she really didn't care. Her parents were mad at her already and wouldn't let her tell her side of the story, so she felt slamming the door was greatly justified. At least now they had something to be angry about. _Screw the consequences!_

 _They won't let me give my own account of events before they jump conclusions. Hypocrites. That's what they are. I swear I'll never tell them anything again if that's how they behave. I'm dammed if I do and damned if I don't. Did they not expect me to start liking boys at some point...damn, they run a multi-million dollar business...surely they can't be so dense._

She had tears in her eyes now as she made her way to the elevator, but unlike the ones she had shed in the car, these weren't because her father had expressed disappointment in her. The tears came because she was furious! Stepping into the elevator, Sariyah pressed the button that would take her to the ground floor. When the doors closed, she let out a scream to express her frustration at the situation she found herself in and frustration with her parents.

Chuck and Sarah looked at each other. This was getting way out of hand. They were going home. Now!

* * *

 **~/0\~**

John Casey was enjoying his retirement. Retirement meant he had more time to spend with his family. And when his trigger finger did get itchy, he could always go hunting or to the shooting range with Gertrude. His phone buzzed on the centre table and he paused the Reagan DVD he had been watching. The number was unknown, but he answered anyway.

"Hello?"

"Uncle Casey, it's CJ. Can you come pick me up?"

"From where kid?" He asked, already making his way to the door.

"I'm at the police station."

* * *

 **A/N: Cliffy? My, my...what has CJ done? Charah certainly won't be pleased.**

 **As I said in the first chapter, I know Charah seems a quite unfair but again, as a teenager myself, I feel like parents are like that sometimes so I'm using my creative license as author of this piece. Don't worry though, I do plan to knock some sense in them.**

 **I think someone hinted at the fact that Sariyah might not have been completely innocent in the sexting fiasco and now that Laura mentioned a picture, maybe you were right. What kind of picture did she send? Hmmmn, you'll have to stay tuned for the next chapter.**

 **Feel free to review, even if it's as a guest.**

 **xoxoxox**

 **~Bg. 13/06/2015**

 **Chapter edited 25/05/2017**


	3. Chapter 3 - Some Explaining to Do

**A/N: Wowwww, haven't updated this in almost a year, but my excuse is great...University happened! One year down, two to go and then law school.**

 **I made some adjustments to the two previous chapters in terms of tweaks to characterisation, especially that of Jake. I'd suggest rereading them to reacquaint yourself with the story and to be in the know for the changes. But if you don't, I have made Jake more 'bad guyish'. In the earlier edition, I felt like I had him characterised as a normal, if not misguided teen who's just navigating in an over-sexualised world but then I made some tweaks to the plot and thus had to up his bad boy image a little. Sariyah's age has also been changed from fifteen to fourteen.**

 **That being said, I hope you enjoy this chapter which was nearly a year in coming.**

 **Charah vs the Teens, Chapter 3- Some Explaining To Do**

* * *

Casey was escorted to one of the interrogation and he was reading through the release papers when CJ came through the door with an officer at his side. He looked up and noticed them and immediately he scanned CJ, checking for any possible injuries. There weren't any visible. He then scanned CJ's face and tilted his head on a side, silently asking CJ if he was ok. CJ replied with a slight nod.

"What happened?" he asked. The question was to both CJ and the officer.

"The young man was picked up for assault and battery. According to our reports, someone called and reported two young men fighting outside of the icecream shop on the corner of 5th and 6th Avenue. When the officers arrived on scene, Mr. Bartowski and another young man by the name of James Smith had crashed into a grocery's display of fruits which were on the outside of another store. That's when we intervened, separated them and brought them here."

"I see." Casey said, glaring at CJ. He better have a damn good reason for all of this.

"That's not all; the younger man sustained a couple of minor bruises and a broken nose."

Casey growled. "You said he's allowed to go. I assume that charges aren't being pressed against him?"

The officer nodded. Jake's father had made a scene in the precinct when he arrived. When he found out that the person whom his son had fought with was the son of Chuck and Sarah Bartowski, owners of the largely successful Carmichael Industries, he saw dollar signs. He wanted to sue them, and hit them hard. A couple million in damages surely wouldn't hurt their pockets. However, those dollar signs soon disappeared when he was told that the two witnesses who were there from the rising action and climax of the commotion had stated that his son was the aggressor and if anything, CJ was acting in self-defence.

"That's correct, no charges have been pressed." He paused. "I hope we won't be seeing you back here young man. Try to stay out of trouble." He advised CJ.

"Yes Officer Thomas," CJ nodded at the man who had taken his statement and written up the report.

Casey grunted. That was good news. "Thanks officer. CJ, come on let's go."

 **/\**

"Are you gonna tell me what really happened?" The two were sitting in the Crown Vic. CJ was silent, and stared out of the window, his face betraying the anger he was feeling, "I'm not starting this car until you start to talk," Casey informed him. CJ scowled at him, but Casey kept his gaze firm, letting him know that he was completely serious.

"He had it coming. I'm sorry I didn't have a chance to do a bit more damage before the cops came," CJ said bitterly. He only regretted that Jake had gotten off with a broken nose rather than a fractured jaw. At least then he would have been unable to talk trash for a while. "The guy, he...he's the guy Sariyah got into trouble with Mom and Dad for. He was sending her inappropriate pictures, and they found out. He's a player…you know? Tries to get as many girls as he can, has sex with them and when he's tired just tosses them aside. I warned Sariyah to stay away from him but I don't think she wanted to hear anything I said." Casey growled from in his driver's seat. "Anyway, something happened at school today and both of them got suspended. Everyone was talking about it at lunch and on my way home, I saw him over at the ice cream shop, laughing and dragging Sariyah's name through the mud." His eyes darkened and his fists were tightly clenched as he remembered what had happened mere hours ago.

/\

 **A few hours earlier**

CJ Bartowski sighed tiredly. Today had been a long day. He had just finished soccer practice at ten to five, and rather than call one of his parents to come collect him, he decided to walk home. He was certain that his parents would be disciplining Sariyah at the moment. During lunch, news about her suspension and Jake's had spread like wild fire. He just hoped she hadn't done anything stupid which would harm the already fragile balance between her and their parents. He knew that both his mother and father were growing weary of her behaviour and that if she didn't set herself straight, the consequences would be serious. He sympathized with her, after all, it was difficult being a teenager, but even he had to admit that she was being difficult.

Slinging his gym bag over his shoulder, he waved goodbye to a few of his teammates and began the twenty minute walk home. He was perfectly content to walk with his headphones in his ears, as the music helped him relax. When he neared the ice cream shop, he saw Jake and two other boys, one whom he recognised from school, leaning up against the display window of the shop. He growled, but resolved to pass them without making a scene. His parents would not appreciate it.

As he approached them, he could hear Jake bragging to his friends about Sariyah. His jaw clenched. The little bastard was probably talking trash about his little sister.

"Yo Bartowski!" He called out when CJ was close to them. CJ faced them, his eyes hard and his lips set in a frown.

"What the hell do you want Jake?"

"Easy there," he taunted, holding his hands up in a placating manner. "I guess you heard that little sister of yours got me suspended. I shouldn't have been suspended. She basically attacked me in the hallway. Talk about sassy!" he snickered.

CJ glared at him. He didn't need to hear this garbage. He turned on his heel, intending to continue on his way home. He felt Jake's hand on his shoulder, pulling him back.

"Take your hand from of off me," CJ snarled. _Before I break it._

"Where you going man? I'm sure that little Miss-not-so-innocent- Sariyah is just itching to blame it all on me when you get home."

"If I ever see you around my sister again, I will hurt you," CJ threatened and walked away from the boys.

Jake was not going to let it go just like that, though in retrospect he would see that it was not a good idea to attack someone who was an inch and a half taller and at least fifteen pounds heavier than him who played football and practiced various forms of martial arts. He ran up to CJ and blocked his path. "Oh, you Bartowskis think you can disrespect any and everyone don't you?" He shoved CJ.

CJ allowed his school and gym bags to fall on the ground beside him. He had tried to be the bigger person, but clearly Jake needed to be put in his place. Jake sprang at him, his fist raised, but his reflexes were quick and he stopped his arm before the punch could land. In a split second, CJ had pulled back his arm clenching his fist; he threw it forward with a force that knocked Jake backwards when it connected. Jake fell into a tray outside of the grocery store with a dull thud.

Jake picked himself up, and looked at CJ with murder in his eyes. The punch had caught him off guard and he cursed himself. He was relentless and charged towards CJ again, and swung another punch towards CJ's head. CJ realised that Jake was stupider than he had originally thought. The younger boy was no match for him. He had been learning various techniques from his mother and Uncle Casey and occasionally Aunts Carina and Zondra from the time he was seven years old. Instinctively, CJ blocked the punch and countered with an upward cut to Jake's face. He connected and heard a crunch. He assumed that Jake's nose was broken by the intensity of the cuff. Served the idiot right. He watched Jake's eyes widen in surprise ad he staggered backwards, violently coughing. Their fight had drawn a crowd and CJ groaned when he saw the people looking at them. There was no way this was not going to get back to his parents. He sighed. Great, just great! The police sirens in the distance though made him curse... _Oh fuck!_

/\

After hearing the story, Casey wasn't as mad as he was before. He didn't usually condone or encourage CJ to use violence, but since CJ had tried to walk away, and Jake attacked, he felt his Godson was justified. Add that to the fact that he was defending his younger sister, Casey thought Jake got exactly what had been coming to him.

"Any chance you know where this Jake lives? I wouldn't mind paying him a visit." He grunted and revved the engine.

CJ smiled. He could only hope his parents were as understanding. When Casey pulled up to Chuck and Sarah's driveway, CJ turned to him. "You're coming in with me, aren't you?" He would beg if he had to. He was sure his Uncle Casey would be able to keep his parents from overreacting.

Casey grunted. "I guess." He wished he'd brought some twilight darts. He had a feeling that the Bartowski parents would be ripping into both of their children tonight.

"CJ, where have you been? It's almost seven! Practice finished before five; I've been calling you for the past hour." Sarah was on a roll from the time he entered the living room.

"Why didn't you call and let us know you were going to be home late?" Chuck questioned.

"I was with Uncle Casey," he explained. That puzzled his parents.

"Casey? What were you and Casey doing?"

"Walker, Bartowski," Casey greeted as he entered the living room. He had heard their relentless questions from in the foyer. He looked at his two friends and saw how pissed they were. Sariyah was sitting on the couch, and looked very distressed.

"What were you two doing?" Sarah asked again. "And couldn't you have at least called and let us know?" she snapped. It was bad enough that they had to deal with Sariyah's questionable behaviour and then had to worry about where CJ was.

CJ looked at Casey and nodded. He was going to tell them what happened.

"Mom, Dad, don't freak out. You need to remain calm," CJ advised.

Sarah raised her brow and Chuck frowned. Calm? He expected them to be calm at a time like this? "Just spit it out CJ. You two are really testing me," Sarah said. With a sick Skylar and two seemingly out of control teenagers, she was really beginning to feel the taxing effect it had on her body.

CJ sighed. Beating around the bush would only infuriate them more. "I got arrested."

Sarah's head snapped around so hard that Casey thought she would have a definite whiplash. The room was filled with tension as they waited for Chuck and Sarah's response. Sariyah was looking at CJ with wide eyes. His admission was unexpected.

Chuck was the first to speak. "You were arrested? Prey, do tell. Why on earth were you arrested?"

"I got into a fight with Jake Smith-" he began, only to be cut off by Sarah.

"Jake Smith?! The same Jake that your sister was involved with?" She was livid now. They had left work after Sariyah's outburst, intending to get to the bottom of the mess she had created, but she was mum. Sarah wondered if she was in an alternate universe, because her children weren't behaving like themselves. They were acting like they'd lost their minds! "Why were you fighting with him? And do you know that that could go on your record? Did you even think about that? Don't you think that your chances of getting into MIT would be reduced if you have a criminal record? Or were you thinking that your father and I would splash some money their way as a 'donation?' CJ, what were you thinking?" She was firing off her questions rapidly and it reminded Chuck of Ellie when she was on a roll.

"Walker, Bartowski, a word please," Casey interjected.

"Don't you dare move," Sarah instructed CJ before following Casey into the kitchen.

Sariyah turned to her brother. "Well the only good thing about tonight is that Sky is staying over at Uncle Morgan's so she won't have to hear all this yelling."

"They're really gonna rip us a new one, aren't they?" CJ questioned forlornly.

When Sarah entered, she considered pouring herself a drink, but decided against it, she needed her mind to be clear when she went back to her children.

"You shouldn't be so hard on them." Casey grunted.

Sarah raised her brow at him. "You think we're being hard on them? I feel like I don't know who they are anymore," Sarah said harshly. "When and how did it start to go so wrong?" She was becoming overwhelmed by the whole thing and her voice cracked at the end. Chuck wrapped his arms around her and kissed her hair.

"Look, I'm not trying to tell you how to raise your kids." Casey continued, "I'm just saying maybe you should decrease the yelling and maybe then they'll open up to you. They're good kids." He pursed his lips for a moment. "Being a hard ass and coming down so hard on them isn't going to help the current situation."

Chuck and Sarah nodded. Maybe they had been a bit too harsh and didn't allow their children to finish speaking before they jumped in. "Thanks Casey, we'll take that into consideration."

"Welcome." He grunted.

"Parenting advice from Casey that doesn't involve military training or Reagan," Sarah snorted, "who would've thought?"

"Heh," Casey grunted again, "I just don't want you two to say anything to them that would damage your relationship," Casey explained in an expression of what could be considered 'lady feelings'.

"Casey, man, thank you." Chuck clapped him lightly on the back.

"I've gotta go, so I'll see you guys later." He left the kitchen and went to bid the Bartowski children goodbye.

Sarah drank a glass of water and did a couple of breathing exercises while Chuck counted to ten in his head. When they went back into the living room, they'd maintain their equanimity. Chuck and Sarah found the children in the same spot where they had left them.

"Your mother and I realised that we were not being fair to you and for that we are sorry."

"So, who'd like to go explain themselves first?"

Sariyah raised her hand. She had not spoken to them since this morning and now that they seemed to be calm, she decided she'd take her chance.

"He was nice to me," Sariyah began timidly. "Most of the boys at school are nice to me too but a lot of that is because I'm CJ's sister. But Jake, well he was nice and when we skipped class he seemed interested in getting to know me and the things I liked and after a while he asked me to be his girlfriend."

As CJ listened to his sister, he clenched his fist. That was a typical play. He should have made sure that Jake had kept far from his sister.

"And I had heard the rumours about him but he was so sweet, I thought that that was all they were…rumours."

CJ sighed. Was this just her wanting to believe the best about people? "But I told you about what happened to Macy."

Chuck and Sarah exchanged glances. They had heard about the situation but had never gotten the name of the boy who was involved.

"I know, and you were right," Sariyah admitted softly. "I saw him with another girl in a classroom after school yesterday."

CJ sighed. Yes he wanted his sister to come to her senses but he also knew that seeing that must have hurt her. "I'm sorry."

Sariyah laughed bitterly. "I guess that's what I deserved."

"Baby no. No one deserves that," Chuck soothed.

"I just feel so foolish," Sariyah huffed.

"Sweetie, you like to see the best in people. And I don't ever want you to loose that. Going forward it just means that you have to learn how to read people," Sarah said.

"What happened today at school?"

"I was getting a book from my locker and when I told him it was over, he called me a slut. Then boxed me in and then he tried kissing my neck."

With that admission, the two children saw fury in their parents' eyes.

"I am going to find my sharpest knife and I will cut his dick off," Sarah seethed. No one could try to take advantage of her daughter like that and get away with it.

Chuck, equally livid, was in complete agreement. "I will break his face."

"If it counts, I broke his nose, so that's a start." He then proceeded to relay his account of his altercation with Jake.

 **/\**

"Thank you for telling us what happened. I'll admit, I was a bit harsh-"

"We both were." Chuck cut in.

"Yes, we were both harsh on you, and again we apologize. I know we're always telling you that you need to listen to both sides of the story before jumping to conclusions, over the last couple of days we exhibited a case of 'do as I say and not as I do'. It's just that I didn't have the best childhood or teenage years for that matter and when you were born, I promised myself that that the same wouldn't happen to you. I what's best for you. Your actions, well I thought that they didn't reflect good judgement and well, it made me think that maybe I haven't done a good enough job of raising you two and..." Sarah trailed off. Her vision was becoming blurred by tears. She felt three pairs of arms wrap around her body, as her family enveloped her in a warm hug.

"We're sorry." Both children apologized. "You're an awesome mom."

They held each other in the hug for almost two minutes. When they separated, Chuck looked over at CJ. "Though you defended you sister's honour, you did destroy the tray in front of the grocery store. You will be responsible for paying for any losses they incurred. So tomorrow, you and I will go down there." CJ nodded. "You two can go on up to your rooms."

CJ and Sariyah climbed up the stairs in silence. It had been a draining day for both of them. When they reached the hallway upstairs, Sariyah turned to her brother and hugged him. "Thanks for sticking up for me."

CJ smiled. He may not have always agreed with her, but that didn't mean he was going to allow boys to hurt or disrespect her. "He was insulting you. No one can insult you but me!" he joked.

She released him from the hug and slapped him on the arm. "You douche!"

* * *

 **~/0\~**

Though Sarah was happy that Sariyah had not been making out with Jake at the time when they had been found by the principal, something was still nagging her. She knocked softly on her door and found her daughter staring through the window. Sarah stood there in the door way, watching her. She looked so innocent and pure. Sariyah who was lost in her own thoughts turned and noticed her mother there.

"Mommy, I didn't notice you were there." She said, shifting on her feet. Sarah looked at her, her expression neutral. Sariyah felt uncomfortable. Sure they had all apologised but she could not read her mother's vibe and that made her nervous. After a moment, Sarah pulled Sariyah into a loving embrace. Sarah was not expecting it and tensed for a moment before finally wrapping her arms around her mother's torso. Sarah rested her chin atop Sariyah's head, swooning in the love she felt for her child.

"I know you and Daddy apologised, but are you still mad at me?"

Sarah sighed softly. Releasing Sariyah from the embrace, she sat on the foot of the bed and motioned for Sariyah to join her. When she did, Sarah took a big breath before speaking.

"I'll admit that I am still mad at the situation." She paused and collected her thoughts. "You know that we saw the pictures that Jake sent to you," Sarah said. Sariyah cast her eyes down. When they had given her the phone as a Christmas gift they had also explained to Sariyah that she had to be careful with the kind of messages she sent. "Do you realize that things like that follow you for a long time; if not the rest of your life?" She tried to keep her voice even. There were way too many sad stories about girls who sent images to their boyfriends and him showing them to his friends or blasting her on social media when they broke up. She didn't want Sariyah to have to experience that.

"But Mommy, I didn't send him anything like what he sent me," Sariyah said. He had wanted her to, but she had refused.

"You should have told us when he first started sending you pictures," Sarah said.

Sariyah let out a sigh as she knew she'd lost their trust. It was foreign to her. "I'm sorry."

"I know you are," replied Sarah. She exhaled deeply. "Your father and I thought something was off with you. I don't know, call it parental intuition." Sariyah was opening her mouth to speak but Sarah's raised hand stopped her. "We had agreed that we would be taking your phone for a while because you were becoming too engrossed with it." Sarah was quiet for a moment. "I saw the picture you sent him in your swimsuit," Sarah stated. Chuck had been very upset when he saw that picture. Although he had been there when Sarah had purchased the swimsuit for Sariyah, seeing her in it made it seem so much more revealing. The way her body filled it out and showed that she was developing into a young woman had left him feeling unsettled. His baby girl wasn't that much of a baby anymore.

Sariyah tensed beside her. She had sent that almost two weeks ago. She and Jake had exchanged so many messages in that time frame that she had forgotten about it and only remembered when Laura brought it up. She had also deleted the picture after she had sent it, as she had felt slightly wrong for sending it in the first place. When Jake had sent a picture of himself topless, he had hinted at wanting one of her in return. She hadn't obliged him though and he had begun to pressure her into sending him a revealing picture. But he had been slightly appeased once she had sent the bathing suit picture.

"I know you were wearing short pants over the bottoms, but Sariyah, the fact that you sent them to him makes your father and I very uncomfortable." Sariyah scooted back and drew her knees to her chest, hugging herself as she felt the tears prick her eyes. "And I don't want you to be uncomfortable with your sexuality, it's just that you're still so young and we don't want you rushing into anything…for anyone."

Though Sarah felt guilty to a small extent about them going through the messages, it was a necessary evil. She wanted- no NEEDED to know what was going on and just how far things had gotten. In her view, the pictures were just a tip off the iceberg. This Jake guy had a real desire to be intimate with her daughter and this alarmed her. The way that he seemed to be so comfortable in sending these types of messages also inclined Sarah to believe that this was not his first experience doing such and having heard that he was the one involved with Vanessa's best friend made that belief stronger.

"Is he the reason you wanted to start wearing makeup?"

"Yeah."

"You wanted to look more mature?" Sarah further pressed.

Sariyah nodded. "He's seventeen and I didn't want to look so childish and plain when I was with him."

"Baby, I know this is gonna sound cliché, but you don't need to wear makeup, because you're already so beautiful."

Sariyah snorted and Sarah looked at her puzzled. "Yea right. It's easy for you to say that."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Wellll," Sariyah drawled. "You're you." She shrugged as if it would explain anything. "You're the most gorgeous person I know."

Sarah stuck out her hand to Sariyah and she took it. Sarah then led her daughter to the bedroom vanity and pointed to the mirror. "You know, people say we look alike."

Sariyah squinted a little. They had the same hair and eyes, but she didn't feel half as much as beautiful as her mother. Her mother was drop dead gorgeous. She wasn't blind. She had seen the way men's eyes would drink in the sight of her. The attention didn't ever seem to faze her though as she noticed her mother would snuggle closer to her father if he was there or purposely do some action so that the onlookers would clearly see her wedding and engagement rings if he wasn't. "I guess so," she admitted.

Sarah nodded. "So if I'm as gorgeous as you say I am, and we look alike, then wouldn't that mean that you're as gorgeous as I am?"

Sariyah laughed at that logic.

"I'm serious baby; you are beautiful, on the inside and the outside. I don't want you to think that you have to wear makeup or change who you are for people to like you. And well, when it comes to boys, next year when you are allowed to date, and not a day before then, remember that."

"Ok, ok, I get it, no makeup and no changing who I am just to please other people."

"Good, and when we do allow you to wear it, I will take you shopping, because that stuff you bought was awful." Sarah laughed. It was not the right match for her skin tone and would've probably have caused her to breakout.

Sariyah smiled. She was much happier now that they were talking and laughing, even if her mother was making fun of her shopping choices.

Sarah sobered up for a moment and remembered that she had not finished talking about everything she had set out to when she entered. "How long was this thing been going on between you two?"

"About four weeks." Sariyah confessed.

Sarah nodded. "You know we have the rule. You're not supposed to be dating without our permission. We have that rule for a reason."

If Jake was so bold as to give her a hickey during school hours then Lord knows how much further he could have taken it if they had been somewhere else. She remembered Sariyah admitting that they had left the school grounds and her mind began to run wild.

It pained her to ask her fourteen year old this question, but she had to, "Are you sexually active?"

Sariyah's cheeks flushed scarlet in embarrassment. "NO!"

"Look, I know it's one of those weird conversations but if you are, please tell me," Sarah pleaded.

"Mom, I didn't have sex with him."

"Has he been touching you? Did you two experiment with your bodies sexually?"

Sariyah shook her head vehemently. "No."

"I know I've been hard on you and sharp with you, but I promise you can tell me the truth." Sarah sighed. "Did he ever put his hand up your shirt? Into your bra? Into your panties?"

"Moommmmm!" Sariyah whined, getting uncomfortable with this line of questioning. "No, he never did." She suspected that the thought might have crossed his mind a few times but he never did.

"Sweetie, you know Grandma Emma wasn't around when I was teenager and Grandma Mary wasn't either when your father was," Sariyah nodded, "and I mean things have changed so much from back then. Now in this age you guys have sexting and all these communication platforms and sex is everywhere." Sarah sighed, momentarily stopping her rant. "I know we had the Birds and the Bees Talk a little before you started your period, but this whole thing made me realise that maybe I need to remind you, that it's okay to wait. Sure a lot of the people in your year might have boyfriends, for all I know they could be sexually active. But baby, I don't want you to be in a hurry to grow up. Just take your time. I want you to get all excited about going out on your first date mixed with a little bit of fear that your father would round up Uncle Casey, Devon and Gertrude so that they'll look imposing when your date comes to pick you up for prom. I love you baby and you are so precious and any guy that likes you should be able to see how amazing you are and respect your wishes."

"I understand,"

"I know the way we handled the situation at first wasn't ideal. And I know that sometimes you like going to your father first about your problems. But I hope you do know that I will always be here for you and that you can tell me anything."

Sariyah stared at her mother momentarily. "He- he wanted me to," she began, unsure of if to continue. Her mother nodded encouragingly. "He asked me before to send a picture that was more revealing, but I didn't. And he um, he uh was staring at my chest once, one of my buttons had become undone, but I caught him and he apologized." She'd felt a tad uncomfortable when she realised that he had been staring at her chest and had resolved to make sure her buttons were always done. "And then there was this one time he..he um ran his hands up my skirt. But I stopped him before his hand got too far. I promise I never thought about doing anything sexual with him. You and Daddy always told me that I should only do it with someone that I love and who loves me back."

Sarah was relieved. This time she was sure that Sariyah was telling the truth. "It's good that you remembered that."

"There were rumours going around about Jake," Sariyah admitted. "CJ was angry when I told him about Jake…But I thought he was different. He was nice to me," Sariyah sighed dejectedly.

"Well baby, sometimes rumours do have an element of truth to them."

"When I saw him with that girl yesterday, I came home and cried. I know it's stupid. I mean there I was crying over a guy who clearly didn't really care about me."

"Baby, I told you, it's understandable that you would've felt hurt. You were disappointed. But, we have to see people for who they truly are and I am glad that you saw Jake's nature before things got any further between you two."

Sariyah shrugged. "I don't know…I had this thought that maybe if I did have sex with him then he wouldn't have strayed."

"Baby no. Don't you dare hop on that train of thought. When someone truly loves and cares for you, they won't be unfaithful simply because you refuse to have sex."

"I guess you're right."

Sarah looked at her watch. It was getting late. "It's time for you to go to bed. We can talk some more tomorrow."

She nodded and scrambled under the covers, she felt a lot better now. Her mother kissed her on her forehead and wished her good night. "I love you Mummy."

Sarah smiled. "I love you too baby girl." Sarah replied.

 **/\**

Closing Sariyah's bedroom door behind her, Sarah leaned against it and slid down to the floor. That was the way Chuck found her half an hour later. She was startled when she felt his hand in her shoulder but smiled when she saw it was him. Smiling, Chuck helped her up from the floor and they made their way to their room together.

"How's Sky doing?"

"Oh, you know those monsters under the bed are no match compared to my Daddy powers," Chuck smiled. Their youngest had woken up from a bad dream but a couple of songs later and another set of good night hugs and kisses all was right with her world again.

Sarah smiled, feeling her heart constrict with love. "No wonder she's such a Daddy's girl. Both of them are," she added softly.

"Hey," Chuck tilted her chin so she was looking directly at him, "what's wrong?"

Sarah pulled away from him and began changing into her sleepwear. Chuck did the same, waiting for his wife to open up to him. "It's just I don't know..." she trailed off, trying to get her thoughts together.

"Sarah, you know you can tell me anything."

"I was just thinking, maybe I wasn't cut out for this...I think Sariyah was right earlier when she said we created this perfect image of her. I think I might have done that unintentionally. From the time she was born I never wanted her to experience life the way I did, and I think that influenced my parenting skills so much that I smothered her and that's why she prefers you over me. I don't think I'm a good mother to her. And CJ, you see how much time he's been spending with Devon and even Casey, I don't know. He didn't even call us when he was at the station. Do I even connect with him anymore? And Skylar? Well it's pretty clear cut that she's a Daddy's girl."

Chuck had kept quiet while Sarah spoke, allowing her the opportunity to let it all out. "Sarah Bartowski, do you really believe any of what you just said?" Sure Sarah had been the one to say it but he knew that this was her anxiety talking. "As for CJ spending so much time with Devon, you know that they were working on his plays for the football tournament. And as for him calling Casey to pick him up, you know he probably didn't want to make us angry-"

"Exactly!" Sarah cut him off, "I yell at them so much they don't feel comfortable with me," Sarah sighed, almost to tears. "What kind of mother am I, Chuck?"

"The kids love you! You're the most amazing mother I know. Do you know that CJ watches some of the old recordings from Castle's dojo so that he can watch your techniques? Do you know that he tries so hard at football because he remembers you saying that you wished you could have been on the team in middle school? Do you know how cool CJ and his friends find it that you can kick all of their asses in go karting and martial arts? Do you know how much Sariyah looks up to you? Whenever we train, she always says she wants to make your proud with her new techniques and stances. And baby, Skylar absolutely adores you. You're her Momma and your cookies rival Auntie Ellie's and you teach her foreign languages. When all the other little girls were dressing up as Queen Elsa and she wanted to be different you got her a Wonder Woman costume and she basically worshipped you for that. Babe, she loves you so much. And yes, Sariyah and Skylar might cling to me in certain ways but that in no way diminishes their love for you. You are simply amazing and I know the kids love you for all that you do for them because it's done with their best interests at heart, even if it may not seem that way all the time."

"Thank you," Sarah sniffed and kissed him on the cheek. She really needed to hear that. "That was pretty eloquent for eleven PM."

"I'm an eloquent schnook," Chuck grinned and kissed her softly on the lips. "How did your talk with Sariyah go?" Chuck asked.

Sarah smiled weakly. "I got her to talk to me." She then recounted their conversation for him. Chuck's eyes had darkened when she mentioned Jake wanting pictures of Sariyah and the desire to go deal with this Jake guy ignited within him once more.

Chuck hated to doubt his daughter, but she had told them a lot of lies already. "How do we know she's telling the truth this time?" He frowned.

Sarah smiled at him reassuringly. "You know she's as bad as you are when it comes to lying to me. I know her tells, when she's lying she closes her eyelids for about two seconds longer than is usual for her blinking, and she also bites the inside of her cheek a lot. I didn't notice any of that. And more importantly, I saw the truth in her eyes." Chuck nodded, that was good enough for him as well.

* * *

 **A/N: Thanks for reading, and please review (even if it's a guest).**

 **So Sariyah did send Jake a picture but then she felt bad about it. I was trying to get her to come across as mostly niave and caught up in the idea of having a boyfriend who was nice to her. I hope that came across properly.**

 **This story will be completed by the end of June. Think of it as a gift from me to you in my birth month. I am thinking maybe two more chapters, an epilogue included or I may just combine it into a long chapter.**

 **Until next time,**

 **xoxoxoxo,**

 **Barbadiangirl 30/05/2016**

 **Chapter edited 25/05/2017**


	4. Chapter 4 - Righting Wrongs

**A/N: Barbadiangirl's loonnggggggg gaps between updates? One word: UNIVERSITY. Perhaps it is fitting that I wrap up this story as I prepare to wrap up my teen years as well.**

 **Of note, I have edited the previous chapters so I suggest reading them.**

 **New readers, welcome. Older readers, I'm immensely sorry for the delay but thank you for sticking with me.**

 **Hope you guys enjoy this installment. It's much shorter than the others but I just needed to get it out.**

 **Charah v The Teens- Chapter 4: Righting Wrongs**

* * *

Robert Smith had a big smile on his face when he heard that his son had been in a fight with CJ Bartowski. However, the smile was smacked off his face when he heard that his son had been the aggressor.

"You stupid little fucker," Robert growled at his son as he drove away from the police station. "You couldn't get those idiots you hang out with to hang back and back up your story. You're pathetic, you know that?" He continued to rant. This would've been a big pay day compliments of a Bartowski settlement but nooooo. "And you're lucky that jaw wasn't broken because it would've taken a chunk out of the insurance bill." He then took a gulp of his beer as they approached a stoplight.

"Could you at least stop drinking while you're driving?" Jake muttered.

"Don't fucking well tell me what to do!" He ground out, annoyed by his what he perceived to be insolence.

"Well if you wanna drink and drive, be my fucking guest." As the light was red, Jake unbuckled his seat belt and then got out of the car, slamming the door behind him. His father didn't even bother to yell after him to find out where he was going. Instead, he rolled the windows up and sped off as soon as the light turned green.

Jake pulled the hood of his jacked over his head as he walked.

"...couldn't get those idiots you hang out with to hang back and back up your story?"

His father's angry words echoed in his head.

At least those idiots were there for him when his father wasn't. Since he had met them two years ago, Troy and Mike were much more of a family to him than his father was. Sure he provided shelter, clothing and food but beyond that, he was a miserable excuse for a father.

 **Two years ago**

He had just finished eating a bag Doritios when he passed by the basketball courts. The game was over and most of the boys were heading home. Two remained, shooting some hoops.

"Mind if I join?"

"Nah dude," the taller one spoke and tossed him the ball.

They shot hoops for a little over half an hour before calling it quits.

I'm Jake," he introduced himself to the two older boys.

"Troy."

"I've seen you a couple times around the neighbourhood Jake," the older of the boys spoke. "I'm Mike by the way."

"Nice to meet you,"

"So Jake, what you doing out so late on a school night?" Mike asked.

He shrugged. "Oh you know," he trailed off.

"Ah so you've got family problems? Well my man I think you'll fit right in with us."

"What school do you go to?"

"Richmond high,"

"Cool. Cool. I not too long got out of juvi and my sister got me enorlled there so I guess we'll be seeing each other."

"That's cool," Jake replied. He was a bit miffed by how Troy mentioned being in juvi like it was no big deal. "What about you Mike, where do you go to school?"

The oldest boy laughed. "Nah, I'm done with school. But I guess when you get into fights a little too much and the last one happens to be with some politican's son, getting kicked out is a natural progression."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that."

"It's no biggie. I have a plan to leave LA in the near future anyway."

"And how do you guys know each other?"

Troy laughed. "We actually met in juvi. Mike here was the top dog in there."

"Cool," Jake smiled.

"Look man you hungry?" Mike asked. "Me and Troy were going to head over to Burger King for some grub. You can come with if you want."

Jake shook his head. "Nah, I don't have any money on me."

"We got you man. We gotta look out for each other right?"

Jake smiled at them, happy that these boys seemed to be nicer than his father was.

From that night they had formed a strong friendship and the older boys came to see Jake as somewhat of a younger brother. And that meant that they began to hang out more. So when Mike was invited to a party by his girl of the week, Jake and Troy had tagged along. That was where he had gotten his first taste of alcholol via spiked rum punch. It was also at that same party that he lost his virginity. Troy and Mike had been waiting outside the door for him, and when he came out, a small unsure yet confused smile on his face, they had patted him on his back and congratulated him on becoming a man.

His father didn't even care about where he was most of the time and the parties he went to with the other boys and the girls he slept with while at said parties all racked up.

* * *

 **~/0\~**

"Yo Troy," Jake announced his presence as he entered his friend's apartment.

"I'm in the kitchen," Troy's deep voice replied. When he caught sight of Jake, his eyes grew wide. "Dude, what happened?"

"Nothing I couldn't get out of."

"You understand that we couldn't have stuck around right bro?

"Yeah man, I know your case worker would've been glad to recommend sending your ass back to juvi."

"She's a pain in my ass that's what she is."

They shared a laugh and then settled into the living room to watch some TV. Ten minutes later, Mike joined them.

"Jake bro, you okay man?" He asked, seeing that his friend's nose looked a bit swollen.

Jake shrugged. His face in general felt a bit tender and his nose occasionally throbbed but he would tough this out.

"Well my sister's working the night shift. I say we order some pizza and just chill for the rest of the night. Y'all game?"

"Yeah man, we can watch the play offs too."

"You mind if I crash here tonight Troy? I kinda got into in with my father..."

"Sure man. Like you even had to ask!"

"Alright thanks man. What are you doing? I thought your sister made you quit?" Jake looked in confusion to his friend who had a spliff in his hand.

Troy scoffed. "She can never keep down I and I brethren. It's Babylonian system!"

"Ummm, okayyy then," Jake scoffed at his friend's newly acquired Jamaican accent.

"You guys sure you don't want a joint?' Troy offered, gesturing to two other spliffs.

Mike picked up on of the beers from the six pack he had brought over and shook his head. "Nah bro, I'm good. And you know you should listen to your elders Troy. I've told you already that you need to take it easy on that stuff."

Jake also took up one of the beers and took a swig. "I'm good too man,"

They were halfway through the game when Mike's phone chimed, indicating he had a text message. He looked down at it and smirked. ''Well guys, I'm gonna head out early."

"Where you going man?"

"Tiffany," Mike smirked as he put on his leather jacket.

"A booty call? Dude, you're gonna miss the NBA for a booty call?"

"Dude, have you seen Tiffany? Have you seen her twerking videos? Ain't no way in hell I'm gonna pass this up."

Troy nodded his head in agreement. "I feel you man! You'd be crazy not to tap that."

"Besides, I need to maintain my streak. Can't have you young fellas breaking it," Mike smirked and fist bumped his friends.

With Mike gone, Jake turned his attention back to the game.

"Dude, serious question," Troy grabbed his attention. "Is the 's' or the 'c' in scent silent?"

* * *

 **~/0\~**

Sariyah woke up at 6:00 am. It was the first time in a long while that she had gotten up so early. She was going to get up and prepare for school when she remembered that she was on a suspension. Her name would probably be all over the school by the time she returned. She snorted to herself. Who was she kidding. Some of the girls in her school breathed for gossip so word of her suspension probably spread immediately after first period and was probably all over the school by lunch time. The realization hit her hard. She closed her eyes and her mind recounted the events that led up to this. _I was so damn foolish!_

She felt a dip in her bed which indicated that she wasn't alone. Based on the degree that it had sunk to, she knew that it was her father.

"Daddy, I'm sorry," she mumbled, her eyes still closed.

"It's ok." Chuck rubbed her leg to console her a bit.

She sat up and wrapped her arms around Chuck and laid her head on his shoulders. "No it's not, I was stupid...I lied a lot...I didn't mean to be so bad." She was hysterical at this point. "I know you're still mad at me. Mommy has admitted that she's still mad at the situation, and I am a big part of the situation so it's logical to infer that she's still mad at me. And you didn't come with her last night to talk to me. Were you that mad that you couldn't look at me? I know I'm a disappointment, but I promise I will behave. Please stop being mad. I'll be good from now on. I promise." She broke away and fell back on to the bed and let out a noisy cry. She lied, went against their rules, was suspended and had been very rude. If she was a parent, she would have hated to have a child who behaved in the manner she had over the past couple of days. She had turned into one of those cliche problem teens - always on punishment and with their parents never trusting or believing them.

Chuck's heart broke for her. He hated to see her cry. "Sariyah, baby. Come on. It's ok."

Sarah had been awoken by the lack of her Chuck pillow and was on her way downstairs in search of him when she passed by Sariyah's room. Hearing Sariyah crying, she came into the room. Sariyah's breath caught in her throat when she saw her mother. Her chest got tight and her breathing became laboured. "I can't breathe!"

Sarah shot Chuck an alarmed look. He began to rub his daughter's back and Sarah sat on the bed so she could look at Sariyah at eye level.

"Count Sariyah. One...Two..."

Sariyah squeezed her eyes shut. Her heart was thumping hard and fast in her ears and she felt tears welling in her eyes. Her mother's voice sounded so distant.

"Sariyah, open your eyes and look at me." Sarah said. "Baby, we love you, nothing is ever gonna change that."

"Count Sariyah. One...two..three."

"One...two..three." She followed Chuck's lead and her breaths started to come easier. When her breathing returned to normal, she wrapped her trembling arms around Sarah. Chuck looked at Sarah and nodded. They wouldn't be going to work today. Sarah left the room and went to get Sariyah some water.

"Sweetheart, I know you messed up. But it's ok. I'm not mad at you anymore. I know you're sorry about everything and I'm sorry about the way we handled it at first. You know I love you, don't you?"

"Yeah, I know," Sariayh sniffed.

Chuck smiled. " If there's ever a problem, I'm here, both your Mom and I are."

She was his daughter and he would always want what was best for her. Sometimes it might not be easy for her to understand what he did, but she had to know that they loved her and didn't see her as a disappointment or a problem child. He tilted Sariyah's head so that he could look into her eyes. "I'm really sorry about the hickey thing, I think that catapulted this downward spiral, so I think we need to go to the school." He thought back to when he had walked into the office to sign her out and him seeing the hickey on her neck in the car. He had been furious to hear the circumstances of the suspension in light of the sexting problem days prior. He didn't want her to get too out of control and had acted on that. He just wanted to make sure that she stayed on the right track.

"I'm sure your mom told you already, but you're intelligent, kind, intelligent, sincere and a wonderful person. I'm not just saying that cause I'm your dad."

Sariyah smiled shyly. Her father always had a way with words. Sariyah then hugged her father.

Sarah knocked on the door and entered. "I'm sorry I took so long to bring the water but Sky woke up early and she was really clingy this morning," Sarah explained as she handed Sariyah the glass.

"Where is she now?"

"Well apparently, it's the one morning everyone in the Bartowski household is up early. CJ took her down to the kitchen."

"Well kiddo, how does French Toast for breakfast sound?" Chuck smiled at Sariyah, knowing it was her favourite.

She smiled back just as brightly. "Sounds awesome."

When Sariyah had flitted from her room to join her siblings downstairs, Sarah looked sadly over at Chuck.

"I know baby, I know," He sighed solemnly. "She thought since I didn't come with you last night that I was still angry."

"She never could stand the thought of you being disappointed in her," Sarah said wearily as she remembered a ten year old Sariyah feeling devastated at having to admit to her father that she didn't like Sizzling Shrimp.

Chuck kissed his wife's hair and pulled her closer. "We'll get through this."

 **/\**

Sarah stopped Chuck and Sariyah as they were leaving to take Skylar to school. "I called the school, we have a meeting with the principal at ten," Sarah informed them.

"Why are you going to a meeting?" Sariyah asked, confused.

"Why are **we** , going to a meeting," Chuck corrected. "You're coming too."

"I think we need to sort out the locker mess. The principal, like us didn't let you explain and that's a wrong we need to right," Sarah said.

"He took advantage of you and I don't think it's right for you to take the punishment for something in which you were a victim," said Chuck.

For the second time in a week, Sariyah found herself in the principal's office. But this time she was a lot less scared or upset. Her parents were with her and they believed her and that was one of the greatest feelings ever.

"While we appreciate that Sariyah has been a good student since she enrolled, there are somethings we just cannot condone."

"Look, I know the school has a reputation to maintain as one of the best in the city and thus you like to adhere to the school rules. And I respect that," Chuck began.

"But you didn't allow Sariyah to explain the situation." Sarah finished.

The principal narrowed her eyes. "I saw them with my own eyes. I don't think there was any need for an explanation."

"And that's where we humbly disagree with you Ma'am."

"She didn't get a chance to defend herself and that goes against the rules of natural justice."

"Sariyah told us what happened and we believed her," Chuck said firmly.

Sariyah smiled timidly in her chair when he said that. It was good to hear them defending her publicly after all that had happened.

"She's your child. Of course you believe her," Mrs Olford said. She had been in the educational system for nearly thirty years and had seen many parents in denial. Whether it was when they were called because their child had been found taking drugs on the school premises, having sex, or even bullying, it was usually the same "not my son/daughter!" In her opinion, the simple fact of the matter was that oftentimes, the children were not the saints and angels their parents held them to be.

Sarah sighed, this wasn't going anywhere. But they couldn't give up. They wouldn't allow Sariyah to be so unfairly punished by the school.

"Don't you have cameras monitoring the hallway?" Chuck asked suddenly, having remembered that it was part of the state's latest attempt to make the schools safer.

"We do, but I really don't think that's-"

"Well I think having a look at the recording from yesterday would help to clear up this mess," Sarah suggested.

The principal sighed. He knew the Bartowski parents were not going to let this go. "Very well then. I'll call security and have them bring the DVD up."

"Actually," Chuck intervened as he moved to pick up the phone, "to save some time I could access the feeds from here. If you'd let me use your laptop?"

Within a few minutes Chuck had tapped into the school's server and located the security feeds. The video was soon up and playing. Hearing Sariyah tell the story was one thing, but seeing Jake invade their daughter's space like that made smoke come from Chuck's ears. Sarah meanwhile was already planning which knives she'd use to mutilate his body.

By the time the video was over, the principal was aghast by Jake's actions and contrite about her own. "Mr and Mrs Bartowski I owe you an apology,"

"It's not us that need the apology," Sarah interrupted, sliding her hand over Sariyah's.

"Sariyah, I am deeply sorry for the way in which I treated the matter. I admit that you should have been allowed to give your account. "

"Thank you,"

"Now, what will the school be doing about Mr. Smith?" Chuck queried.

"As you know he was given two days suspension. Speaking of suspension, in light of this video I'll lift her suspension and have it removed from her school record. She's free to return to classes today even."

Hearing that, Chuck and Sarah encouraged Sariyah to leave the office and head to class. Once Sarah was gone, Sarah turned serious.

"I'm sorry but I don't think a two day suspension is going to cut it. He basically assaulted my daughter."

"Yes, I understand that in light of the video evidence the suspension seems like a slap on the wrist but-"

"But? But what?" Chuck cut in. "Do I need to replay that video?"

"Look Mr and Mrs Bartowski, all I am trying to say is that there are some channels we have to go through?"

"And what sort of channels would those be? I'm sorry but if you think that we are going to let bureaucracy into this and nothing more be done about the situation then you are clearly mistaken," Sarah stated and Chuck's eyes blazed in agreement.

The principal sighed. "I'll bring the matter to the school board."

"We'll be in touch," Chuck told her and

 **/\**

The team gathered around the table, anxious to begin the mission briefing.

"What have we learned?" Chuck queried.

"Well it seems that Jake got a bit of a bad break in life. His mother was a drug dealer and got caught in a sting operation. She got twenty years for heroin manufacturing and distribution. That happened when he was five and since then he's been with his father," Morgan recited, looking at the paper in his hands.

"And what do we know about him?" Sarah asked.

"Robert Smith. Aged fifty-five. He's got a bit of a record- a DUI and soliciting prostitutes," Casey replied. "I got the feeling he was a bit of shifty character. When I picked up CJ from the station, the officer said that he had been going on about suing you two."

Chuck sighed. "Great. So we've got a seventeen year old who likes to play women with two parents that are less than desirable."

"Like I said, he seems to have had a bad break in life," Morgan affirmed, sounding a bit sympathetic.

"I hope you're not defending him Moron," Casey growled. "He forced himself on our Goddaughter!"

Morgan put his hands up in defence. "Whoa, whoa! I'm not. What I'm saying is that he has shitty parents and maybe didn't have anyone to teach him better."

Sarah snarled. "Pretty much all of us had shitty parents in varying degrees. As much as I loved my father, I knew what we did, what I did was wrong. Jake? Preying on girls like that? I don't care how far off his parents' moral compasses were. It's inexcusable."

"What's the school saying?" Casey asked, trying to tone down the tension in the room.

Sarah stood from her chair and began pacing. "You know how these schools are sometimes Casey. It's no different than the CIA or NSA with their bureaucratic bullshit. School board my foot."

Casey grunted. "I guess the question is: what are we going to do?"

* * *

 **A/N: One more chapter to wrap this up. Feel free to review, (even if it's a guest).**

 **Until next time,**

 **xoxooxo**

 **Barbadiangirl, 25/05/2017**


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